Living Shinigami
by Coffeetailor
Summary: In the Ministry of Hades, one must die before becoming a Shinigami, with a single exception: one violet eyed boy with a braid. TsuzukixHisoka, 03x04, 1xR, 5xM New: Sequel Now up, "The Clock Moves Backwards."
1. Birthday

A/N: I know that I shouldn't be starting another fanfiction when I've already got so many that need finishing, but I couldn't resist. This is a Gundam Wing and Yami no Matsui (Descendants of Darkness) crossover, neither of which I own. For once, I actually have an idea where I'm going with this plot, so it might, _might_, go faster than some of my others. If I get translations wrong, feel free to correct me in a review, as long as it's a nice one and that's not all you say. I may respond to some reviews at the end of various chapters, but only if they need responding to. "When are you going to update?" is not one that I consider a review that needs a response. Now, while I won't demand a certain number of reviews to update like some authors, do know that they make me feel all warm and fuzzy, and I write more when I feel all warm and fuzzy. So, without further ado, here is the fanfiction.

"Living Shinigami'

Chapter One

Birthday

Duo Maxwell's pleas for mercy rang unheeded through the hallways as torture upon torture was piled upon him.

"It wouldn't take so long if you would stop complaining and just do the work for a change, baka," Heero said, glancing up from the papers scattered over his own desk.

Glaring at his partner over the stack of paperwork in front of him, Duo jumped in surprise as the phone rang.

"Shinigami's desk," he said with a grin, answering the phone.

"Maxwell, come down to the lobby," Wufei said on the other end, clearly distracted. "There's something down here that you should see…"

Curious, Heero followed Duo from their office. The sight that met them was hardly one to be expected, especially with what was known about Duo's past.

The Preventers' lobby was packed full of flowers and brightly wrapped packages. In front of the rather ludicrous display was a large wreath of flowers reading "Happy Birthday Duo!"

Said boy's face split into a huge grin. "They found me! They actually found me!"

"Just who found you?" Wufei asked, eying the piles. When Maxwell was sent packages of any sort, one had to be wary.

Heero stepped foreword and opened a card that was attached to the wreath, reading it aloud. "_'Happy twenty-first birthday, Duo-kun. Sorry for the lack of gifts, but you were really hard to track down. The extra stuff was Chief Konoe's idea, so thank him when you see him again. With love, the Judgment Bureau.'_ There are seven names there, and more spread over the card."

Duo started to pick his way around the gifts. "Let me guess on those names: Tsuzuki Asato, Kurosaki Hisoka, Chief Konoe, Tatsumi Seiichiro, two signatures of Gushoshin, and one simply Watari with a little cartoon of a longhaired man with glasses and a ponytail giving the peace sign. Am I right, Heero?"

"You seem to know them rather well," Wufei said once Heero had nodded, the blue-eyed pilot dodging a rolled-up ball of wrapping paper.

"Well, Wuffers, did you think that I just popped up out of thin air?" Duo asked, throwing a large, black trench coat over his shoulders. "I just got lost for fifteen years, that's all, but someone did raise me for the first couple of years."

"You said that your parents were dead," Heero reminded him. "A claim you've repeated several times in the past couple of years."

"A claim that I still maintain too, because it's the truth," Duo said, staring at a tin of cookies with suspicion. "Maybe I'll let that new kid at the front desk try one of these first. Watari likes testing his formulas on people by putting it in their food. Never accept coffee from that guy. Owe my existence to him, but still don't quite trust him with food."

"Maxwell, we don't trust _you _with food," Wufei said with an amused snort.

"Though even you have to admit that I make a mean dessert," Duo said with a grin. "And you know that I consider it sacrilege to tamper with sweets."

"Thank Nataku for that," the Chinese man said, shaking his head. "Maxwell, surely you don't plan on opening them all here in the lobby."

Duo held a glass beaker up to the light. "Of course I don't. There's a note on that stack over there that specifically says to open those in private. Ooh, these are pretty nice quality. Wonder if he ever finished his formula."

"Is that a katana?" Heero asked with widened eyes as Duo opened a longer box.

The braided-boy didn't answer as he drew the sword from its sheath. Etchings in Kanji ran down the blade, which flashed brightly in the light. "How did he get this? The Kurosaki family sword… Arigato-gozimasu, Okaa-san. I think I'll open the rest of this stuff back home. Hey, I'm going clubbing tonight. Want to come with me?"

"If only to keep you out of trouble," Wufei said. Heero nodded in agreement with a smirk. "I suppose you've already decided on which club we're going to."

"But of course, my dear Wuffers. We're going to the Yami no Kage, the shadows of darkness (1). I'm gonna go find Cat and Tro, so I'll see the two of you later. Meet me at my apartment around seven."

"Where does he get his energy?" Wufei asked as he watched their comrade bounce away, the night's dancing already filtering into his steps. "It can't all come from sugar."

"Is it possible that it's genetic?" Heero suggested, looking up from where he'd been instructing a man to take the packages to Duo's house. Said boy had paused to offer a cookie to the man working behind the desk.

"If I ever meet another person with violet eyes and brown hair with that amount of energy, I'll be sure to let you know," Wufei said.

"My dad was worse!" Duo called back across the room. He was gone before either could recover from the horror inspired by the very idea.

As promised, (sort of) the four arrived at Duo's house at seven that evening. When the grinning man threw open the door, he was already dressed for the night and wearing his new trench coat. Duo's long hair was worn in a wavy ponytail instead of the familiar braid and a new pair of purple tinted sunglasses was perched on his nose.

"Well then, now that everyone's here, shall we get going?" a familiar silver-haired man asked, stepping up behind Duo and grinning as he used the shorter man's head as an armrest. Millardo winked roguishly at the lot of them. "Duo here promised me an introduction to a certain bar keeper, so I had to tag along."

"Ah, get off, Zechsy, or I'll tell her the truth about you, that you're an egotistical maniac who should have been locked up ages ago," Duo said, throwing the older man off of him.

"We'd be sharing a cell, Duo," Millardo said with a laugh, herding them all towards where a limo had just pulled up to the curb. "Relena lent it to me when I threatened to tell her secretary why she cancelled an entire day's worth of meetings last Friday." He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "My baby sister, all grown up and skipping work to go shopping with the gals."

"At least she didn't give you the pink one," Wufei said with a roll of the eyes.

"According to the plates, Wufei, this _was _the pink one," Quatre said, staring at the paint as though it would allow him to see through it. "She must have had it repainted."

"A stomach flu will make anyone recoil from the color pink, Fei," Duo said, climbing in with flare. "Alright, Jeeves, off to the club!"

They'd been to the Yami no Kage before, but something was off about the dance club that night, something almost otherworldly. The pilots could feel eyes on their small group nearly every moment they were there. It unnerved four of them. Duo, however, seemed completely in his element, brushing against and mingling with people that weren't there from one moment to the next. Quatre especially felt a cold chill in the air despite the heat from the crush of bodies and bright lights.

Over the evening, they saw over twenty different people claim a brief part of a song with Duo before vanishing, and Heero could have sworn he saw several without feet. (2)

Closing time found Duo sitting at the bar talking to a blond man in hushed tones that made it incredibly difficult for the others to eavesdrop.

"It'll take a while…change your citizenship back…branch of the ministry…" the blond man was saying. "…be partners again…family is family…"

"Thought you would," Duo said with a smile. "…summons department… nice disguise…"

The man laughed slinging an arm around Duo's shoulders. "Well, I figured they wouldn't let…his I.D. says he is." (3)

A woman joined the two, laying a hand on the blond man's shoulder and speaking in a clear voice. "Come on, Solo, it's time we headed home. Long flight ahead of us."

"When are you going to stop treating me like a kid, Sam?" the newly named Solo grumbled, sliding off of the stool.

"When you grow up and stop acting like one," Sam said. "So, this is the infamous living shinigami, Duo Maxwell?"

"Pleased to meet you, miss…" Duo trailed off, waiting for a name.

"Samantha Carter, call me Sam," she said, shaking his hand firmly. "Good luck getting back home. I'll look forward to working with you if our assignments ever overlap." (4)

"That'll be another four years still, at the very least," Duo said, returning her open smile. "But feel free to drop by every now and then until then for a visit, both of you. By the way, Solo, I know the records are sealed, but I was wondering if you know what happened to…well…"

"Don't know about your namesake, Duo, but I worked on your Helen's case personally," Solo said. "She didn't want to leave right away and it took quite an amount of effort to convince her that you'd be fine before we could give her the court summons. I'm sure they're both happy wherever they went, kid."

Grinning, Duo tackled the man and got him into a headlock, rubbing a fist into the top of his head. "I'm not the kid around here anymore, Solo."

"You're always going to be the kid," Solo laughed, slipping out of his friend's grip. "When we've both outlived the colonies, you'll still be the kid. Well, I'd better start heading out before the fuda wears off and they throw me out. See you around."

"Yeah, see you around," Dou agreed, giving the man a brief hug. "Say hello to the guys at the office for me when you get back."

The blonde pair waved to Duo as they left the club together, already starting a friendly argument by the time they'd reached the door.

"Heh, we should have called him Peter," Duo said to himself with a light laugh. "Guess that'd make me a lost boy though." (5)

"Old friend?" Quatre asked, sitting down on the stool Solo had vacated.

"Yeah, from back in the old days, when I still lived on L2," Duo replied. "Solo and I used to look out for each other, watch each other's backs while we took care of the other kids in our gang. We got… separated, I guess, during the plague. Until tonight, I hadn't seen him since. Well, I'm bushed, so what do you say we head back home. Work starts dark and early in the morning after all."

"Not to mention that I think our barkeeper wants to leave as well, and not alone either," the empath said, smiling. "It would appear that your matchmaking skills are improving, Duo."

"Well, now I have a favor I can use against dear Zechsy whenever I'm in a tight spot with the Une Lady. She listens to him better than she does me." The braided man pouted for a moment before brightening again. "I haven't opened all my gifts yet!"

Quatre laughed, pulling Duo to his feet as they made to gather the rest of their friends. Duo would be Duo.

* * *

A/N: Well, I hope you liked the first chapter. Remember, I love to hear from my readers, so please review. Here're the notes to match up with the numbers up above.

1. I'm not completely sure on this translation, so feel free to correct me if I'm off. The name is supposed to translate to Shadows of Darkness, just so you know what part of that may need correction.

2. Ghosts don't have feet in Japanese mythology.

3. Here's the conversation without the missing parts:

"It'll take a while to get you clearance, not to mention that you'll need to change your citizenship back. As it stands, you're only eligible to work in the American branch of the ministry, since it includes L2," the man was saying. "Course, I wish you'd stay with us so we could be partners again, but hey, family is family, so I understand."

"Thought you would," Duo said with a smile. "You know, I'm not surprised that you made it into the summons department, working L2 no less. That's a nice disguise, by the way."

The man laughed, slinging an arm around Duo's shoulders. "Well, I figured they wouldn't let a twelve year-old into a bar, no matter how old his I.D. says he is."

4. Yes, this is a shameless insert of a character from Stargate SG1. There might be a few more scattered characters from different things in the fic. It saves me from having to make OCs all the time whenever I need an extra. As for Sam's comment about working together, I decided that while the colonies all belong to different ministries, L1 belonging to the Japanese ministry, L2 belonging to the American, and so forth, their nearness would make it commonplace for a case to overlap more than one colony.

5. He's referring to Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, since Solo's physically frozen at the age of twelve, the age he died. This adult appearance in this scene is due to an illusion, as mentioned.


	2. Calm Chaos

A/N: Gah, I love you guys! Less than an hour after the post, and I start getting reviews! I'm dedicating this chapter to my first three reviewers of this fic, spirit-gun, Weissangel24, and kitsune-001 (in that order), and to sean's grrl because she let such a lovely review. By the way, World Religions is one of the most awesome classes in the universe. Anyway, I will make a list of Duo's presents later, but it won't be posted on It will, however, go onto my site once I get around to it. Last and oh-so much least before the chapter is my disclaimer: I don't own Yami no Matsuei or Gundam Wing. They belong to nice people in Japan who can draw a heck better than I can. On with the chapter.

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Two

Calm Chaos

Duo was oddly calm the next day, with the exception of whenever his phone rang or office door opened. When either of those two events occurred, violet eyes would flash brightly for a moment before he realized that whomever he was waiting for was not the one calling or entering. At that point, a little disappointment would flit across his face for the brief moment it took to return to the peaceful expression that looked so strange on the former thief.

"Who is he waiting for?" Quatre asked when Duo had declined his offer for lunch for the first time in any of their collective memories. To the pilots' knowledge, the young Shinigami never passed up the opportunity for free food, especially sweets.

"Perhaps one of the people who sent him the gifts," Wufei suggested. "If they found him after fifteen years, it would make sense that they'll want to see him personally soon, and he them."

"There's also the man he was with last night to consider," Heero put in, glaring at his coffee as though all the world's problems were its fault. He didn't like not knowing what was happening to his partner. "Did you find out anything in his background check?"

Quatre sighed, shaking his head. "All I have is that he goes by Solo and grew up on L2. Apparently, he and Duo were really close when they were children. I couldn't even find anything when I sent a picture from the security cameras through records. It's like he doesn't exist."

"It's most likely that he doesn't," Trowa commented quietly. He explained when he noticed the disbelieving looks the others gave him. "Chasing a person from L2 is like chasing fog. It's everywhere, it's nearly impossible to miss when you see it, but it slips right through your fingers when you try to grab it and leaves no traces that it was ever there when it leaves. In essence, it's a colony of phantoms. The only reason we could ever build a file on Duo was because he let us."

The four looked up as the door chimes rang, signaling the entrance of a blonde woman and child, who couldn't be any older than twelve, and his small size made that stretching it. Oddly enough, it was the child who was speaking angrily on a cell phone while the woman ordered two coffees at the counter.

"Yes, I know he isn't dead, but-" the child growled as he was clearly cut off by the person on the other end of the call. "Now listen, he's the son of the guardians from sector two of the Japanese ministry. Ring any bells? By birth, he's Japanese." There was a pause before he started to snap into the phone again. "I don't care if you have him listed as American! That's just because none of you bums ever bothered to check when you discovered the kid's existence! Look, just tell your boss that Solo from sector L2 of the American ministry's summons' department called and that I've really got to have a chat with him." The boy smirked slightly. "Yes, that'll be all for now."

"How'd it go?" the woman, who Quatre now recognized from the club, asked as she and her companion moved to sit at the table behind the pilots'.

"Stupid, bird-brained secretary tried to pull the 'sorry, but there's nothing we can do and my boss is a very busy man' act on me," the kid grumbled, wrapping his hands around the steaming mug. "And that was _after_ I convinced her that I wouldn't accept being treated as a child just because-"

"Just because you are one?" Sam asked, ignoring the glare sent to her by the child. "You should be used to it by now, Solo." Facing in the opposite direction as them, Quatre nearly choked on his drink upon hearing the child addressed by that name. "You've worked with us for what now, ten years?"

"Fourteen," Solo said with a sigh. "Fourteen long years. Started when I was twelve, and I'm twenty-six now. To think, some people pay millions of dollars to keep their youth. Mine sticks to me like a leech."

"Well, let's just hope for the best for your friend," the woman said. "He seemed like a nice guy. Besides, if he gets where he needs to, maybe Duo can introduce me to his godfather."

Unable to resist any further, Quatre turned around in his seat. "Sorry, but I couldn't help but to overhear. I'm Quatre-"

"Quatre Reberba Winner, Trowa Barton, Heero Yuy, and Wufei Chang," the kid finished. "Yeah, I know, Duo told me. I'm Solo."

"He's named after his uncle, who was with me at the club last night," Sam said quickly before anyone could ask. "His father, my husband, was going to take me, but was called away, so my brother offered to instead."

"What's your father's name?" Quatre asked the child, mindful not to speak down to him.

Solo answered before Sam could open her mouth. "Jack." (1)

She shot him a dirty look before forcing a nod. Solo noted to remind himself to hide when they got back, from both Sam and her old partner.

"Break's just about over," Wufei pointed out, checking his watch. "Une will have our hides if we're late again."

When they had returned to the office, Duo wasn't there. Looking over his desk, it was Heero who decided that the apocalypse was indeed upon them. Duo's completed reports were stacked neatly in the center of the desk, which was otherwise clear of all clutter, with the exception of a collection of cards left over from his birthday.

"I think he mentioned something about going to Chinatown," the man at the desk said when they asked. He backed up a step nervously as Heero stared closely at his face. Either the lobby lights had been tampered with, or the man's skin had become lightly striped.

"Did Maxwell give you anything yesterday?" Wufei asked suspiciously.

The young man looked surprised. "Um, yeah, he did. I think it was a cookie. Is there something wrong, sir?"

"Look in a mirror on your next bathroom break," Quatre said, holding back a laugh, but badly. "It would appear that one of Duo's friends is a chemist, and he sent those cookies."

"I'll see if I can find him," Wufei volunteered as they stepped away from the dismayed test subject. "I have the best chance at fitting in and gathering information. Tell Une where I've gone."

"You do realize that Duo's going to sulk for days when he finds out that we've been digging," Quatre said, worried, as Wufei left them.

"After which time he'll double his prank load for a week. Yes Quatre, we know," Heero said, nodding. A small smirk appeared on his face. "We're just lucky that he'll catch Wufei first."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter; so don't forget to push the little blue button!

1. If you're a Stargate fan, you'll get Solo's joke. If you don't, it doesn't really matter to the plot at all.


	3. Goose Hunt

A/N: Not much to say here, except that I really pity Wufei. Oh, and I got my driver's permit today! does a happy dance Anyway, I don't own anything except for my plot and my Duo and Heero plushies. Hugs for everyone!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Three

Goose Hunt

* * *

Chinatown was as busy as it usually was on a Friday afternoon, which said a lot. It also meant that it was next to impossible to find a single person among the masses. Or, rather, it would have been were it not for the fact that the man Wufei was searching for was Duo Maxwell.

When the pilot from L2 wanted to be hidden, he was invisible and intangible, but the rest of the time there might as well have been a flashing sign attached to the end of his braid saying 'look at me!' However, it was still nearly impossible to follow his trail quickly enough to actually catch up to the violet-eyed man, especially in a busy part of a city.

"Purple eyes you say?" a man at one of the numerous shops lining the street Duo was said to have passed through asked. "A young man with odd eyes did pass through here about ten minutes ago. It's hard to see eye color in the light here, but his eyes may have been purple. The man was dressed in black and had brown hair, really pretty. Does that sound like your friend? He was headed down toward the Moonflower Bakery."

"That's definitely Duo," Wufei said, nodding. "Thank you for your help."

"Not a problem," the man said. Wufei hurried out of the shop, trying to catch Duo before he lost the trail completely. "Of course, I've seen two men like that today, but oh well."

"Would you like some help deciding, sir?" a woman asked Duo as he leaned over the various calligraphy sets for sale.

"Thanks, but I'm fine on my own," he said politely, making the woman, little more than a teenager actually, sigh in disappointment. "But could you give me some advice on what ink would be best for sutras? My father uses them."

The young woman blinked. "You're the second man today to mention drawing sutras. An older man came in here about an hour ago and was talking about them. Come to think of it, you look sort of like him."

"You don't say," Duo murmured, taking a close look at one set's brushes. "Now, about that ink?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, flushing. Making herself suddenly busy to cover her embarrassment, she bustled over to a shelf and pulled down a box of ink sticks. "I'm not sure how good these are, actually, but the man I mentioned bought them, so it's the best guess I can give you."

"This should work," he agreed, taking the ink and his final choice of calligraphy sets up to the counter. "Thanks. Tell my look-alike hi for me if you see him again."

Purchases tucked under an arm, Duo left the shop and walked past the bakery next door. It was by luck, ill or fair, that he missed the black-haired man in the Preventers' jacket coming out with a grumble of disappointment and a chocolate muffin. He'd missed his query, who'd apparently met up with a blond companion, by five minutes.

In the confusing streets of Chinatown, even Wufei became turned around a few times before finding the sushi restaurant a waitress at the bakery had overheard Duo's friend mentioning.

The inside of the restaurant was loud with the clatter of dishes and the chatter of the customers. Shelong's pilot smirked as he noticed a young blond man berating his older companion, who had brown hair. Unfortunately, he didn't see any signs of Duo, and an inquiry to the chef provided no results. No young men sporting braids had come in that day.

Sighing in exhaustion, Wufei left the restaurant, eyes lighting up as he spotted a bookstore across the street. At least the trip wouldn't have to have been a complete waste.

"Hey, Wuffers, what're you doing here? I thought your lunch was over."

From his place just within the threshold of the bookshop, Wufei stared at the hyper boy in front of him, a stack of books balanced on his hip. Several shopping bags hung from an arm.

"So is yours, if I remember correctly," Wufei said, biting his tongue to keep from lashing out at the American who he'd just spent the better part of an hour searching for only to have him pop up right after he'd given up on finding him.

"Late birthday present from the Une lady," Duo supplied, grinning. "Plus I promised to get her something from the bakery a couple of blocks away. I'm going there next."

"I thought you already went there," Wufei admitted, confused.

Dou shook his head, sending his braid flying. "No, not today. Maybe you saw someone else."

"It was a waitress who told me she'd seen someone who matched your description," Wufei said, rushing forward to grab some of the books Duo was holding before they could topple to the floor. "You do realize that most of these are written in Japanese, right?"

"Tatsumi-san taught me when I was a kid," Duo said, waving off the Chinese man's concerns. "Took it up myself during the war whenever I had some downtime."

"All you ever did during your free time was read comic books," his friend said, eyes narrowing.

Shaking his head with a sigh, Duo started to guide Wufei out the door. "Really, I could have been plotting to destroy the world with popsicle sticks and you wouldn't have noticed. Not a single one of those comics was in English, Fei."

"Only you, Maxwell, only you," Wufei said with a short laugh.

Once they'd gotten the promised treat for Une, a short debate headed them toward the city docks on the very edge of the section of the city. It was while taking one of Duo's many shortcuts through an alleyway that they heard a shot ring out. Beside Wufei, Duo cried out in pain.

* * *

A/N: In case you didn't figure this out, Wufei was indeed getting mixed directions for finding both Duo and Tsuzuki, since the description he typically gave was brown hair, purple eyes, and dressed in black. Both of our dear bishies tend to fit that description. Like I said, poor Wufei. Don't forget to review!


	4. Home

A/N: Found it! I write most of my fanfiction long-hand before typing it, and the last page of this chapter went missing for a while in the bottom of my bag. But this evening, I found it, so here's our beloved chapter. Okay, you all know that I don't own anything, so call off the lawyers. I already have one in the family. Love you all!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Four

Home

A fist wrenched in Wufei's gut as he watched the blood start to spread across Duo's pant leg, the braided man falling.

Wufei dodged as there was a second shot, this one coming from a different direction. _There's two of them._

"Hey you stop... doing whatever the hell you're doing!" one yelled, stepping into sight from a doorway. His gun was trained on Duo, who was rummaging through his packages. The American pulled out what Wufei recognized to be a calligraphy brush along with a thin strip of paper. "Stop it or I'll shoot! Jamison, cover me!"

A second man emerged as the first approached Duo, who'd just dipped the brush into the blood that was starting to pool on the pavement under his leg. Wufei couldn't see what his friend was writing, but their Shinigami was interrupted by a cold ring of metal being pressed against his temple.

Ignoring the gun, Duo turned his head to look at his attacker, whose hands were trembling. The man jerked back at the look in those unnatural eyes, nearly dropping his gun.

"Y-you killed Lynette!" he stuttered, tense. "Now just don't do anything. I have to- to avenge her death!"

"And what will you do then, once you've killed us?" Duo asked quietly. The man relaxed slightly as Duo closed his eyes, but jumped back violently as the blood soaked brush struck down and made one final mark. "_Kijin, help me!_"

Lightning began to strike around them as Duo collapsed fully and a thundering cry split the air.

"What the fuck is that?" Jamison yelled over the noise, staring at the sky in horror. Wufei followed the man's gaze and gasped in delighted awe.

A glorious blue dragon was flying directly for them from the center of the sudden thunder storm. The two would-be assassins scrambled back as the dragon landed. Wufei stared in awe as the dragon wrapped protectively around them, snaring down at the terrified assassins.

"No killing, Kijin," Duo mumbled, draping an arm over the top of one coil. "Une will yell at me if she doesn't get to interrogate them."

The dragon, Kijin, snorted at the braided boy's request (order?), but settled with lashing out at the two with his tail and knocking them out. With shaking hands, Wufei took out his phone and dialed.

"Une here," the woman said plainly.

"This is Chang," Wufei said without taking his eyes off of the dragon which was currently nuzzling the wounded Duo. "Maxwell's been shot. He's alive and the assassins..." The Chinese man searched for a way to describe the event. As Duo would put it, 'Une would give him a nice long vacation in Hotel Looney Bin, where the walls were padded and they gave you nice warm jackets with really long sleeves' if he said that their attacks had been laid low by a dragon. "The assassins are unconscious."

"Alright, I'll send someone over to pick them up while you get Maxwell to the hospital," Une said with a sigh. She hadn't missed the fact that Wufei had been so vague on purpose. "You'd better be able to give me a good report when you get back."

Wufei gave her the address before hanging up. Around them, the dragon was shifting, helping Duo climb onto its back with the same tail that only moments before had been utilized as a weapon. "Maxwell, what are you doing?"

"Kijin's going to take us home," Duo said, clearly still in a blood loss induced daze. "Even if I knew the way, I'm too tired to fly... Gonna go to sleep now. Wake me up when we get there..."

He had to move quickly to grab Duo before he could slide off of the dragon's back and injure himself further. Wufei matched gazes with the dragon and swallowed. "Kijin-sama, will you carry me as well? Duo could fall on his own." He held his breath until the dragon nodded, allowing him to climb on behind the sleeping boy, keeping a firm hold on him.

Kijin lifted from the earth, a gigantic blue ribbon in the sky to those below if they'd been able to see the shikigami. The higher they rose, the more nervous Wufei became. _Just where does Duo consider home?_

There was a flash of light as the scenery beneath them changed abruptly.

"Cherry blossoms in January?" Wufei wondered out loud, leaning over to look at the pink orchard. It was too late to stop when he realized that he'd leaned too far and was falling.

_Thunk._

"That had to hurt, but I think he'll be fine," a cheerful voice said above him. "Should be waking up any moment. How much should we tell him, Tatsumi-san?"

"We'll see how much he remembers first, before we decide," a second voice, male like the first one, said.

"You may as well open your eyes, Chang-san," a third, younger, voice put in flatly from a bit further away. "I know that you're awake."

With a sigh of resignation, Wufei opened his eyes to look up at the two men standing over his bed. The first was shockingly familiar, a blond man with a ponytail and glasses. "Watari?" (1)

Amber eyes widened behind round glasses as the man's companion, the perfect picture of a Japanese businessman, chuckled and helped Wufei to sit up. "Something that you need to tell me, Watari-san?"

'Watari' sputtered violently, face flushed. Smirking, Wufei looked around at his surroundings, searching for the source of the third voice, and, if possible, Duo.

The room appeared to be a hospital ward, with several beds and large windows open to let the sunlight and scent of even more cherry blossoms in. _So I wasn't seeing things._ One of the other beds was occupied, unless people around there had a habit of crowding around empty hospital beds. Close to the bed but watching him was... Quatre? When did his eyes change color, and that expression..?

"Soka-chan, keep that up and you'll scare Hijiri's friend!" A loud and hyper voice interrupted the startled staring contest as a tall min in a suit without its jacket threw an arm around 'Quatre's' shoulders, grinning across the isle at the Chinese man. Brown hair fell slightly over a pair of haunted but laughing violet eyes.

_Kami-sama, he looks almost exactly like Duo_, Wufei realized with a jolt.

A pair of hands reached between the two males to push them apart, revealing Duo Maxwell sitting up in the bed behind them, also grinning. "Wuffers, you're awake! How's your head?"

"No worse than after going with you to a rock concert," Wufei said, eyes narrowed as he glanced between the three. Duo and the blond boy's face shape were the same, and the hair and eye combination, the eyes Wufei hadn't thought he'd see more than one pair of, was identical to the older man's. He mentally began to alternate between shaking his head and banging it against the nearest solid surface. _No, it's not possible. Duo had no living relatives._

Duo, however, didn't seem to want to ease his friend's mental strife. "Wu-man, meet my parents, Tsuzuki Asato and Kurosaki Hisoka."

If anyone had asked about that moment in the future, he would have either denied it or threatened painful death upon the inquirer if he or she dared to ever repeat the fact, but due to a combination of the strain on his head from the fall and the shock of the revelation, Chang Wufei did something he'd never done before.

He fainted.

A/N: Okay, to respond to sean's grrl, I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to pair Duo up with anyone. The plot doesn't really count on it as of yet, so it's still up in the air.

1. Don't forget about the card from chapter one.


	5. Meeting the Family

A/N: Hey, sorry for the way, but I have a good excuse. I turned seventeen on Monday! Yay! Got lots of presents, and my party isn't even until Friday, meaning that I'll get more. Anyway, you know that I don't own anything already, so I'll skip the disclaimer and get right to the chapter. Don't forget to review!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Five

Meeting the Family

"Maybe you should have broken it to him a bit more gently, Shini-chan," Tsuzuki said, hiding a smile. "Is he usually so delicate?"

"Wufei is anything but delicate, Tou-san. He's just suffering from 'Maxwell overload.' True, it usually just sends him on justice rants, but what can I say? Knowing Wuffers, he'll be up again and spazzing about Kijin-san in no time. Where'd he run off to, anyway?"

"Back home, most likely," Hisoka said, watching as Watari struggled not to laugh at the twisted position Wufei had put himself into upon fainting. He turned back to his son and frowned as he was forced to look up in order to meet violet eyes. "You're older than me."

Both Tsuzuki and Duo started to crack up, slinging an arm each around the 'younger' man's shoulders. "Kaa-chan, you knew this was going to happen. Watari-kun said that I wouldn't stop aging until I was twenty-five, and that's another four years."

The empath sighed. "We're glad to have you back, Hijiri, but do you really have to call me_ Kaa-chan_?"

Duo was laughing when Wufei woke again, and he listened carefully before moving. It wasn't his 'pranking on Wuffers' laugh, nor the maniacal cackle he got before detonating something. Judging the sound to mean that they were safe, Wufei opened his eyes and sat up slowly.

Almost immediately, he wished he'd stayed unconscious, where he could still pretend that the day's events had been a dream.

The Quatre look-alike, Kurosaki, was red-faced as he tried to shut up Duo's doppelganger, Tsuzuki, who was telling said braided boy a story that was apparently quite embarrassing. From what Wufei could make out through Kurosaki's protests and Duo's laughter, it involved a glass of sake, a gun, and… dumplings?

"…Just keeled over, absolutely drunk," Tsuzuki said, illustrating the story with his arms. A saucy wink was delivered to the blond teenager. "First time I had him in my bed."

"I was asleep and you ended up sleeping on the sofa," Hisoka said, glaring behind his flush. "Which you'll do again tonight if you don't stop telling him those stories. Besides, I was only seventeen then, and it was the first time I'd had sake."

Duo started to laugh even harder, clutching his stomach as he glanced around. Catching sight of Wufei, his face brightened. "Fei-chan! Welcome back! Have a good nap?"

"Maxwell, where are we?" Wufei asked, pushing back the blanket and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "And who are they?"

"You might not remember since you fainted, but I already said who they were, my parents," Duo said, blowing hair from his face.

"Your parents are dead," the Chinese man protested. "Even if they weren't, these two are too young to have a twenty-one year old son, even ignoring the fact that they're both male. Kurosaki-san can't be older than seventeen."

"You're right about just one thing," Tsuzuki said, smiling. It was an eerie expression. "We are dead."

"Welcome to Meifu, Wufei," Duo said with a wide grin. "World of the Dead and home, sweet home."

Wufei was silent, too shocked to speak. Then something clicked in his head. "We're dead? There must have been a third assassin who shot us both."

Duo shook his head. "No Wufei, we're still alive, the only two in this world. Believe me, you'll know it when we're dead. Anyway, like I said before, these are my parents. Tou-san, Kaa-chan, this is Chang Wufei. We fought together during the war and both work for the Preventors now."

"And between the two of you and your friends, you've been keeping us very busy," Tsuzuki said, stepping forward and extending a hand to Wufei to shake, which he did. "What my son forgot to mention is that we work for the Judgment Bureau here in Meifu, in the Summons Department."

"The Summons Department?" Wufei asked, curious.

It was Kurosaki who spoke up. "We go after souls who have missed their court dates. We're Shinigami."

Startled, Wufei spun his head around to stare at Duo, who smiled, nodding. "Yep, I've already got a position waiting for me as soon as I stop aging. Me and whichever sucker gets partnered up with me will be in charge of L1 since it's in Japan's jurisdiction but has been grouped with sector four for ages. Watari's been trying to get rid of it since it was practically built. Sector four's his territory."

"Shini-kun will be the first living Shinigami," Tsuzuki said with pride, throwing an arm across the braided man's shoulders. "The rest of us had to die first."

"He'll also be the last," Kurosaki added. "The king wasn't exactly pleased when he heard that Watari had created life and forbid him to create any more children."

"You see, Fei, the kitten's not the only test-tube baby among us," Duo said. "Only difference is that both parents here were dead already and I don't have twenty-nine other siblings."

Pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead, Wufei began laughing. "I should have known better than to even _suggest_ that there could be another person like you. I've doomed the world."

"Actually, you can blame Konoe-san for that," the pony tailed man said as he walked in through the open door. "He partnered these two up in the first place. If they'd never been paired up, Duo would never have been born and the world wouldn't be doomed."

"What a horrible thing to say about your own godson," Tsuzuki said with an amazing impression of a puppy. Beside him, Kurosaki sighed. "After all, you even had a hand in his creation."

"A fact which my lab lamented for the next couple of years," Watari pointed out. "Your son's a born hell raiser."

"I do try," Duo said, grinning as he leaned back to rest his head against his folded arms. "And anyway, I only blew it up five times more than you did."

"And you were _how _old?" Wufei asked, disbelieving.

"Let's see, he was just teething the first time, so it much have been when he was, oh, a year old. Bit something he didn't like and knocked over a chair that I'd hung my coat on, which in turn knocked over several beakers of highly explosive chemicals," the scientist recalled, wincing as he remembered finding out what Tsuzuki was like when he was angry.

"It was the first time we realized that Duo wasn't simply a mortal child like we'd expected him to be, though we really should have known better," Tsuzuki added, producing a box of cookies from somewhere and handing one to Duo. The pair started to happily munch on them.

Kurosaki sighed, running a tired hand through his bangs. "It's like watching a puppy in front of a mirror."

"Don't be so mean, Hisoka," the older man whined, clinging to the other's shoulder.

A thought struck Wufei as his friend sat up and shoved the blanket away from him. "Duo, where's your wound? I saw you get shot; I saw you bleeding!"

"Wufei, relax!" Duo ordered, jumping from the bed to grip the Chinese pilot's shoulders. "I just heal really fast. It's because of the way I was born. My abilities as those of the walking dead, and healing quickly is one of them."

"Are you human?" Wufei asked, meeting Duo's eyes.

"We're not sure, Wufei, we're not sure."


	6. Searching for Hijiri?

A/N: Really sorry for the delay. With the new fic plus school, I've been getting really distracted. Eventually, I will be updating all of my fics, so don't worry. Neither Gundam Wing nor Yami no Matsuei belong to me unfortunately, but I wouldn't mind an early birthday present… Anyway, I don't really have much to say this time, so enjoy the fic and leave me a review if you like.

Living Shinigami

Chapter Six

Searching for… Hijiri?

"Yes, that'll be all for now. Thank you for your time." Quatre hung up his phone with a heavy sigh, turning to the other two remaining former pilots. "No one of either Wufei or Duo's descriptions have checked into any of the hospitals within a ten mile radius from where they were attacked. Heero, have you had a chance to question the two men yet?"

The Japanese man shook his head. "They're both being treated for concussions. Une won't let me near them until tomorrow morning. She's as irritated by it as I am, but we all have rules to follow now."

"You'd have had them hanging by their feet over a cliff by now if this had happened during the war," Trowa said, worry for his teammates evident even on _his_ face. "They may know who took Duo and Wufei."

"From Wufei's phone call, we know that Duo has at least one bullet wound, and it sounded as though Wufei was uninjured at the time of his contact with Une," Quatre said, jotting down some notes. "There's nothing much we can do until we're allowed access to the prisoners except gather what information we can from the scene itself. It has been blocked off from the public, right?"

Trowa nodded. "The investigators are trying to leave it as intact as possible until we've gotten a chance to look at it."

"Tell Une that we've gone to investigate the others' disappearance," Heero ordered a passing intern, who squeaked and quickly ran off to do as told once he'd noticed the identity of the man giving him orders.

"I'm sorry sir, but this area is a crime scene. We can't allow you to enter," a young police officer said as they reached the alley, stopping them.

"Preventers," Heero said, showing his identification. "What have you noticed so far?"

"Well, we can pretty much tell that Agent Maxwell laid here for a bit," the man said, pointing to a patch of dried blood. "The two attackers were found there and there, though it looks like they hit the wall up there."

"What made those?" Quatre asked, staring at several deep gashes in the brick walls on either side of the alley. "They look almost like claw marks, but that's impossible, isn't it?"

"Mr. Inamodo from over at the bookstore doesn't think so," he said, pointing in the direction of the named shop. "Claimed to have seen a dragon, a big blue one, enter the alley and leave with passengers. While he's the only one claiming to have seen the thing, everyone in the area agreed that there'd been a freak thunderstorm. It only lasted for a moment and then the sky was clear once again."

"Heero, look at this," Trowa said, holding up a burnt scrap of paper. Quatre clapped a hand over his mouth as he noticed the ink.

"Duo's handwriting," Heero said, taking the paper.

"But Duo doesn't know how to write in Kanji," Quatre puzzled. "I'm not familiar with that character. Can you read it, Heero?"

"Kijin," the former pilot of Wing replied. "Duo was teaching himself to read and write in Japanese during the war."

"Any ideas as to why?" the blond asked.

"The gift senders all had Japanese names," Trowa pointed out. "It could be possible that Duo originated from a Japanese family before arriving on L2."

Staring at the paper in his hand, Heero turned it over. "Then why is he also using Sanskrit?"

-

Wufei was kept in bed until the next morning when Watari allowed Duo to give him a tour, with a _lot _of help from Tsuzuki.

"You have a worse sense of direction than I do," the older man teased, correcting their path once Dou had led them down the wrong hallway, again.

"Hey, I was just a kid the last time I was here," he defended. "I bet you still get lost in Gensoukai, and you've been going there for over two hundred years."

"Gensoukai?" Wufei questioned. "What's that?"

"It's where the shikigami live," Tsuzuki explained. "There are the four guardians of north, south, east and west. You've probably heard of them: Genbu, Suzaku, Sohryu and Byakko."

"They used to baby sit me sometimes when I was little," Duo added in cheerfully, grinning as the Chinese pilot paled and, cursing, backed away a step. "Something wrong, Wu?"

"The four gods _babysat_ you?" Wufei's eyes were wide.

Tsuzuki laughed. "A lot of different people babysat little Hijiri-kun when he was little. Those four just happen to be old friends of mine. Actually, you met Sohyru's son Kijin the other day. He's the one who brought you here."

"The blue dragon?" Wufei asked. Both men noticed. "Wait, Hijiri?"

"What, you didn't really think they named me Duo originally, did you?" Duo said. "My birth name is Hijiri Kurosaki Tsuzuki. It's actually on a birth certificate filed away in the Tokyo General Hospital. The poor people still don't know how it got there, especially since my 'mother' is a boy who'd been dead since the old calendar days and my father isn't even in their records."

"He was named after a violinist we met on one of Hisoka's and my first cases," Tsuzuki said, slinging an arm over his son's shoulders.

"Not Hijiri Minase?" Wufei asked, startled into forgetting his worry over deities as sitters.

"The one and the same," Duo's father said, grinning. "We knew him back when he was still in high school. Had a cursed cornea."

"I remember Watari telling me about that case," Duo said, nodding. "Did you really attack Kaa-san with a meat cleaver?"

"I was possessed by a demon!"

"You use that excuse when you're caught stealing Konoe's pastries. So, the spawn is back."

"Uncle Hajime! Kannuki-chan!" Wufei blinked as his comrade left them abruptly to glomp onto a teenage girl with ribbons in her hair after her male companion had dodged the attempt. "Didja miss me?"

"Get your hands off of my partner, spawn," the man growled, scowl making the markings under his eyes even more defined. "And keep them off of me. I don't want to find out whether or not you inherited Kurosaki's oddities." (1)

"Long story," Tsuzuki said when Wufei looked at him in question.

"But it'd be fun, Uncle Hajime," Duo piped, eyes suspiciously innocent. "And if you do transform, you could give Wufei and I a ride to our house?"

"Oh, I just remembered something," the girl said. "Now that you're back with us, I figured that you'd want to go to the imaginary world and say hi to everyone. I have to open the gate anyway so Kijin can get back home." (2)

Duo's ears perked up. "Kijin's still here? Where?"

"He's with Hisoka," Tsuzuki said. "Didn't I tell you that?"

But Duo was already pulling Wufei down the hallway by the end of the first sentence, heading on a search for the younger of his fathers.

"They're probably in the library!" Wakaba called after them. Giggling, she turned to her partner and Tsuzuki. "He's just like the two of you rolled together."

"No he's not!"

-

1. Whenever a female besides Wakaba touches Terazuma, the shiki he's possessed by (Kuroshungei) takes over and he transforms into it. Oddly enough, Hisoka's touch does has the same effect.

2. Yeah, I know this probably isn't true, but I needed an excuse. Poetic license, I say!


	7. Shikigami

A/N: Okay, this chapter was kinda hard to write. For one thing, I couldn't find anywhere that said whether or not Kurikara became Hisoka's shiki, so I decided that no, he didn't. If that's what actually happened, then yay. If not, then who cares. Artistic license and all that. Well, enough of that. I don't own Yami no Matsuei or Gundam Wing. I do, however own this story idea. It's mine. Alright, enjoy the chapter, read and review!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Seven

Shikigami

"It's a summoning sutra."

"What is that?" Heero asked, leaning over Quatre shoulder to peer at the computer screen.

"Well, they supposedly summon things from other worlds, spirits, demons, the works," the blond said, gesturing toward the screen. "From what I can figure out, Dou's was supposed to summon this 'Kijin' from someplace called the 'imaginary world.' I can't make heads or tails of it. Trowa, do you have any ideas?"

"The name Kijin sounds familiar," Trowa said, thinking. "I believe Wufei may have mentioned it once. Try cross-referencing it with Chinese and Japanese mythology."

Quatre nodded, hands flying over the keyboard. "Found it. Kijin, the son of the dragon Soryuu, the god of water and guardian of the east. He was created when the emperor gave Soryuu a portion of his power to fight the god of fire, the dragon Kurikara. The power was so much that it flowed out of Soryuu and into the sky, creating Kijin, the king of thunder, and then into the sea, creating Tenko, the king of the sea."

"But why would Duo try to summon a myth to save him?" Heero asked, confused. "And to use his own blood…"

"I always believed him to be Catholic," Trowa commented.

"We also always believed his parents to have existed at least at one point."

They looked up to see Sally leaning in the doorway, a folder on hand.

"What do you mean?" Quatre asked.

The woman doctor entered, pulling herself up a seat. "The DNA tests that we were running on him to find his parents came through. We tried to match him with the records from every single hospital that's stood in the past century. No matches at all. I even checked the morgue records on plague victims. Nothing. Not only could we find no records of his parents, but there weren't even partial matches, not even enough for someone to have been a third of fourth cousin. However, I did find something that may or may not be his birth certificate."

"Really?" Quatre asked, his eyes lighting up. "Then you'll be able to tell us his real name!"

Sally shook her head. "Not for a while. The hospital it's at is buried under so much red tape that they could wrap the moon in it, and their records are all paper, so don't bother trying to hack into it, Yuy."

"Is there anything you can tell us?" Heero asked, raising an eyebrow. Hardcopy records, in this era?

"Just that the secretary I talked to remembered it because it was really odd, and they never saw the infant it was written for. And by the way, to support your theory on Duo having come from a Japanese family, the hospital was in Tokyo."

--

"Kaa-chan! Kijin-kun!" Duo called out joyfully upon entering the library. Wufei tried not stare at two floating…chickens? as he was dragged past row upon row of books. At last, Kurosaki entered into view, along with a blue haired man dressed in an old fashioned kimono. The man turned toward them and Wufei suppress a shiver at his pupil-less eyes, which were pale enough blue to be almost white.

"Hijiri-kun, you're already up," Kijin said, slightly surprised. "I'd have thought that Watari-san would keep you in bed for at least another day."

"Na, I heal fast," Duo said with a grin, slinging an arm around the dragon's shoulders. "Anyway, I thought that you and Wuffers needed a proper introduction since we were kinda in a rush earlier. Wufei, meet Kijin, wind shiki and dragon king of thunder. Kijin-kun, this is my comrade Chang Wufei."

Awed, Wufei bowed low. "It is an honor, Kijin-sama."

"Chang, hm? The dragon clan?" Kijin asked, smiling. He returned the bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you, and I must thank you for keeping our young mischief maker out of trouble."

"Maa, don't be so mean, Kijin-kun," Duo whined, latching onto him. "Kaa-chan, tell Kijin-kun that I don't get into trouble all the time."

Kurosaki smirked. "I thought you didn't like it when people lied."

"Hisoka-chan, don't pick on Hijiri-kun." Wakaba bounced up to them, glomping onto the braided shinigami, who wasn't at all bothered by Terazuma's glare. Both sending glares at each other, he and Tsuzuki had followed the girl in. "And you shouldn't run off on us like that. What if you'd gotten lost again? The ministry building is really big and besides, I was about to come here anyway to get Kijin-san so we could open the gate."

Duo grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, Wakaba-chan, but I was really excited to see Kijin-kun and wanted him to meet Wufei. Forgive me?"

He pulled a pair of puppy eyes and the girl squealed before tightening her grip. "Too cute! Alright, you're forgiven."

"Hisoka, are you going to come with us?" Tsuzuki asked his husband, head tipped to the side.

Hisoka shook his head. "I'd better not. You know what Soryuu thinks of me. How long do you think you'll be gone?"

"Maybe a day or two," Duo said, grinning as he was released from Wakaba's hug. I'll need enough time to get to know everybody again, and I know Kuri-chan will want to have most of a day without the others breathing down his neck."

Kijin choked. "_Kuri-chan_? Have you called him that to his face?"

Duo nodded. "Yep. Said that he'd kill anyone else who tried though. He talks big, but he's really a big softy underneath all that hair."

Tsuzuki ruffled his son's hair. "Only you would risk your life giving Kurikara a nickname, Hijiri-kun."

It was Wufei's turn to choke and he stared at his friend with wide eyes. "_The_ Kurikara? The fire god of the forge? The one Soryuu defeated?"

"You won't want to be reminding him of that," Duo said, grinning. "But yeah, _that _Kurikara. He's my shiki."

Kijin nodded in agreement when Wufei turned disbelieving eyes to him. "It's true. Just a couple days after Hijiri's 'birth,' Tsuzuki brought him to the imaginary world to show us. We were barely starting the party when Kurikara showed up and picked him right up from his cradle. We thought that he was going to kill Hijiri until he announced that little Hijiri would be his master. It was too late to argue. The contract was already made, and only they can break it."

Duo winced. "Man, I'd better apologize to him for calling you instead. He's gonna be so mad at me!"


	8. Welcome Home

A/N: Yeesh, I haven't updated this in two months! Ouch. Very sorry about that, by the way. Anyway, here's the new chapter to my beloved fic. I've decided that watching Mythbusters while writing is not very smart. I tend to get distracted far too often (like I am as I'm writing this author's note right now). Things will be starting to pick up in pace soon, but for now beware of the fluff. I hope you enjoy the new chapter and leave a nice review for me! One last thing. **I turn eighteen on October 3rd!** Okay, I'm done now.

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Eight

Welcome Home

It didn't take long to decide that Duo and Wufei would stay the night in Meifu before passing into the imaginary world, but that Kijin would be sent home ahead of them to tell the others.

"I didn't expect things to look so much like earth," Wufei commented, looking around as they left the gates marking the edge of the ministry property, which topped a large hill. From there, he could see Sakura lined streets with white painted houses and office buildings. On the other end of what appeared to be a main street, a large manor spread out over impressive yards. "Who lives there?"

Tsuzuki shivered. "The Earl. That's the hall of candles. Each human life is connected to a candle in there. When it goes out, they die."

"The Earl is obsessed with Tsuzuki," Hisoka explained, smirking. "He insisted on watching Hijiri every now and then when he was younger, and spoiled him rotten every time."

"We're lucky that that's the only thing the pervert did to Hijiri-kun," the brown haired man insisted, shooting a glare toward the manor.

"Hey, I liked Ojii-san," Duo protested. "He always gave me all sorts of goodies, and I had a blast exploring that place. Never let me go down to the basement though."

"Good."

The Tsuzuki-Kurosaki household wasn't very far down the hill because of their position in the ministry, according to Hisoka. It was just a little bit bigger than its neighbors, and Wufei could see a cat curled up in the window.

Unlocking the door, Tsuzuki slowly opened it, all the while keeping his eyes on his son. "Welcome home, Hijiri-kun."

As he passed over the threshold, Duo almost had tears in his eyes. Any evidence of them was quickly wiped away with the heel of a hand, but they remained shiny. With the emotion bleeding off of the braided boy, Hisoka was forced to burrow into his husband's arms as they watched their only child return home after being missing for such a long time. Even Wufei was affected, a giant lump forming in his throat.

Despite the fact that the former pilot and future shinigami couldn't find his way around the ministry building to save his life, he needed no guidance to move through the halls of his childhood home, and didn't pause until he found himself standing outside a red door. Violet eyes fixed upon the small sign hanging just at eyelevel, its messy hiragana faded with time. 'Hijiri's room.'

"Wufei?" he asked quietly. "Would you mind if I did this alone with my parents? I'm not-"

"I'll wait in the living room," Wufei said, nodding. "I understand."

Smiling softly in thanks, Duo began to push the door open as the Chinese pilot turned back to the main room. Coming in, he'd been too focused on his friend to examine the multitude of pictures hanging on the walls.

From what he could tell, which wasn't much seeing as Tsuzuki and Hisoka never seemed to age in any of them, the photographs were arranged in chronological order, the first dozen or so not even including the younger looking man at all, but rather what he took to be friends and coworkers.

In the first of them, Wufei only recognized Tsuzuki and the oldest looking of the people who he'd seen when he had first woken up in the hospital ward, Konoe, or something of that matter. The clothing clued him in to the age of the photograph, old calendar 1930s Japan, with an even mix of kimono and western business suits. Just how old was Duo's father? The others began to show up in later portraits, though Wufei noticed a visible gap in time after the man he'd heard being called Tatsumi appeared, with Hisoka at last in one dated 1997, leaving almost none of the original group present.

It was at that point that the pictures began to change, with next to no formal pictures of the assembled group. Vacations, dinners and simple pictures of the two together dominated a large portion of the wall before being superseded by images of what was clearly a wedding. One in particular wasn't a photo, but a painting. Dressed in traditional kimono, Tsuzuki and Hisoka knelt before a curtain that only showed the faintest outline of whoever sat beyond it.

He passed by the next series of snapshots until one in particular caught his eye. A considerably large group of people gathered together around the couple, Tsuzuki's arm around the shoulders of his younger husband, and in Hisoka's arms… Wufei swallowed around the lump once again forming in his throat. Hisoka was holding a sleeping infant, wrapped in a large swath of cloth. Even though its head was covered and its eyes where closed, he knew the exact coloring that the baby had.

One wall seemed to have been reserved entirely for pictures with Duo in them, or, rather, Hijiri. It probably would have been safe for Wufei to bet that every single picture that anyone had ever taken of the young shinigami was there on that wall. Baby pictures, Duo as a toddler, wearing an oversized lab coat that dwarfed the child completely, blowing out candles on a birthday cake, riding on the back of a very peculiar man with long hair and a scar over one eye, flying, climbing one of the Sakura trees, playing with Wakaba's hair-

Wufei's brain did a mental rewind as he almost ran back to a picture that he'd passed. No, his brain hadn't been playing tricks on him. A four-year-old Duo was reaching for his father, who was hovering a full ten feet from the ground, reaching back encouragingly. The child's sneaker bearing feet were four feet off of the ground, and he wasn't jumping.

The last two things were a poster and a picture from a newspaper. Wufei recognized the type of poster. He didn't even need to read it to know that it said 'Have you seen this child?' Six-year-old Duo stared out from the paper with a grin, his hair only just past his shoulders and a smudge of dirt on one ear. He recognized the newspaper image too. The same picture had been delivered to his front door the week previous, accompanied by an article about a war orphans' benefit dinner that they had thrown the night before, with four of the pilots and Lady Une dead center behind a bunch of kids. The last of them to have gotten there for the photo, Duo had jumped in with the kids and had one clinging to each arm as well as a smaller boy sitting on his lap. Their names where clearly stated in the caption below, Duo's circled.

_So that's how they found him_, Wufei thought. Footsteps approaching made him turn around to see Tsuzuki entering the living room.

"Hijiri's taking a short nap until dinner," the man explained. "Hisoka's staying with him until he falls asleep."

"We had always thought that this was all lost," Wufei said, his fingers brushing against the glass on a picture of Duo waving finger-paint covered hands at the camera, a gigantic blue thumbprint on his nose. "What was he like?"

"Like I wished that I could have been when I was young," Tsuzuki said, his smile wistful. "Innocent and happy, though he definitely had a mischievous streak that I'm not quite sure of where it came. Maybe Kurikara or Byakko."

"That part hasn't changed at least," Wufei smiled. "Back during the war, he had the habit of hacking into our computers and booby trapping emails to play the most irritating music he could find, loudly and repeatedly. I also had to repaint my gundam three times because of our troublemaker."

The older man slung an arm over the Preventer's shoulder. "So, Wufei, tell me about yourself and what my son has been up to for the past fifteen years."


	9. Photographs

A/N: Yatta! New chapterness! Yet another one done in one sitting with my ex-boyfriend _distracting_ me. :Glares at said ex-boyfriend.: Feel free to sick the penguins on him. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and leave me nice tasty reviews! People haven't been reviewing much on my other fics recently and it makes me sad.

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Nine

Photographs

Wufei was telling Tsuzuki the story of Duo and Heero's first meeting when Hisoka re-entered the living room. The young appearing man yelped as he found himself suddenly in a headlock.

"I knew he'd take after you," Tsuzuki said in mock anger. "He didn't even wait until he was seventeen to shoot his partner."

"I didn't actually shoot you, baka," the blond said, tickling his husband until he was released. "Just threatened."

"He held a gun to my head and accused me of being a vampire," Duo's father said matter-of-factly. "Watari would have been digging bullets from my brain."

"And you would have been complaining the entire time," Hisoka concluded. "Go make some tea. At least that we won't be poisoned from."

Wufei blinked. "I take it Duo didn't get his cooking skills from his father."

"Thank Enma, no," Hisoka said with a shock of the head. "I started teaching Hijiri to cook when he was four."

"Thank Nataku. Once we realized that Quatre couldn't cook and how bland Heero's cooking was, Duo ended up cooking a third of our meals during the war," Wufei said, smiling.

-

In the world of the living, the other three former pilots stood in front of the apartment belonging to one Duo Maxwell, Preventer agent Night. In fact, they'd been standing there for a while. When the suggestion to search for clues in said apartment had been made, they'd forgotten one key detail.

None of them _had_ a key.

"So, do either of you know how to pick a lock without destroying it?" Quatre asked casually. "All of my methods involve acid or explosions, and I'd rather not get Duo or his landlord mad at me."

"Wufei was the only one Duo was teaching," Trowa said with a frown, arms crossed over his chest. He glared at the lock.

_Click._

Millardo had to laugh at the faces of the three younger men were making as he opened the door, spray bottle in hand. "Or you could have just knocked."

"Millardo, what are you doing here?" Quatre asked warmly, walking past the jaded prince as he stepped aside to let them in. "I thought you lived on the other side of town now."

"I do," Millardo said. When the last had entered, he shut the door. "I'm just here to water his plants and take care of Byakko-chibi."

Byakko-chibi was Duo's tabby, a fat, lazy, and, according to Wufei, possessed by Satan, cat. It had ridden on the braided man's shoulder into the office one day. They had promptly learned that Une was violently allergic to cats. The sneezing and red-eyed woman chased pilot and feline out of headquarters with a sword quickly borrowed from Wufei.

"Did you clean as well?" Heero asked, looking around the main room of the apartment. During the war, Duo's half of the room would look like a hurricane had skipped through it within a day of his arrival anywhere. The living room he stood in was neat, not to the Stepford level, but it was neat.

"Na, it was like this when I got here," the man said. "Duo's usually pretty neat. Made living with him for two years a lot easier."

"Heero," Quatre whispered, shock and awe in his voice. The blond and his partner stood near the far wall, where several framed photos sat on a small rectangular table. The faces of strangers looked out at them, smiling, some alone, some with others, some with a child who was undoubtedly Duo.

"They must have been in the packages he didn't open in the lobby," Trowa said, laying an arm over Quatre's shoulder. He tapped the glass over a photograph of Duo playing with the hair of a blond man in a lab coat with glasses. "Watari?"

"Looks like," Heero said. Blue eyes scanned over the table. "Still no parents."

"I think we found whom we can blame for his hair," Quatre said, picking up a silver frame styled after a Chinese dragon. The picture was of a man and a baby. The baby's eyes were wide, laughing, and violet. The man's black hair pooled around him as he sat, and the millionaire thought that it would still lie on the ground if he stood. The man wore old-fashioned clothes, and a battered sword lay on the ground in front of them.

"Name's Kurikara," Millardo informed them, glancing over their shoulders. "Not quite sure on the relation. The four of you got here before he could tell me."

"He seems to know a lot of people," Heero commented, blue eyes scanning over the many faces represented. He nodded toward one picture in particular that looked over a richly decorated ballroom filled with people in elaborate costumes. "Wealthy people."

"Why did he ever leave this life?" Quatre asked, a little sad as he caught sight of three year-old Duo grinning while he held tightly onto a bag of goldfish. The toddler Preventer was dressed in a black yukata printed with white outlines of butterflies. The hand that was not occupied with the fish held tightly to the larger hand of a similarly clad man. Unfortunately, the top of the photo cut off pretty much everything above his waist. "Do you think that was his father?"

"It's possible," Trowa said, taking a careful look at the ring the man wore, comparing it with several other photos where a hand would be resting on Duo's shoulder, holding a second crayon, or lifting him up. "He's in quite a few."

"If that's his father, then these must be of his mother," Quatre said, pointing to a series of smaller hands found in the edges of photos. "The rings match. The photographer seemed very careful not to put them clearly into the frame."

"I asked Duo about that, actually," Millardo said. "Something about pictures of them being highly regulated. So are some of him, actually. Have you ever noticed that every picture you print with him in it takes longer to process, and that some suddenly delete themselves altogether?"

Yes, they had noticed that particular detail, just like they'd noticed that video cameras never worked well in the self-proclaimed Shinigami's presence. It made proving that Duo was behind pranks hell.


	10. Mornings

A/N: It's a bit of a sleepy chapter, but I like it and I hope you do too. I actually decided to work on it now to get rid of the writers' block I have for the current chapter of "Return of the King," which, sadly enough, didn't seem to work. Hey, at least something good came out of it. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and please leave a nice review.

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Ten

Mornings

By morning, it was clear that Duo had inherited his sleeping habits from his father. Both slept long past sunrise, meaning that Wufei and Hisoka ate their breakfast in relative peace. Around eight, the blond collected the dishes and took them to the kitchen.

"Asato takes forever to wake up," Hisoka stated, returning. "Would you get Hijiri out of bed? I don't know how he to reacts to being awoken since being in the war."

Wufei nodded, understanding. "I woke him whenever Heero or Quatre were away."

The Chinese man's path took him back to the red door, and he could hear the sound of Duo's breathing as he slowly opened it. Sunlight was already seeping in through the window, giving Wufei a good chance to look around the space.

Everything was still sized for a child, from the dresser to the matching desk and chair. Stuffed animals lined a high shelf, a gap suggesting that one had gone missing or been taken down since their original arrangement.

A child's gi and hakama hung from a closet door, dusty from over a decade of being undisturbed. Textbooks were stacked on the desk, and Wufei nearly choked when he noticed a half-finished worksheet sitting on top of them, the mathematics simple and the kana clumsy. When he'd entered the room and placed a hand against the inside of the doorframe, he'd felt the notches of a growing child tracking his progress.

The shinigami-to-be himself was curled up on a bed much too small for even his slight stature. Fast asleep, he clutched what looked to be the missing stuffed animal, a striped cat in black and white.

Throughout the war, the five pilots had been forced to learn how to wake each other for whatever reasons. Trowa and Heero were the easiest, needing only to be called. Quatre practically required the scent of tea to be roused from dreaming. Dou had delighted in learning that the best way to wake Wufei from a deep sleep was to throw things at him (preferably from a safe distance). Books worked the fastest.

The method for Duo was by far the strangest, and definitely the most difficult. Yelling wouldn't work, he seemed to dodge in his sleep, and it even took a good half an hour of waving fresh coffee under his nose to bring him into full awareness. When he had asked the braided pilot the first time they shared a safe house without the others, Duo had flushed and abruptly changed the topic to lawn mowers.

The safe house had been in the desert.

In the end, he had been forced to pry it out of Quatre over the phone, costing him nearly a pound of tea from the nearby town.

Picking up a brush from the dresser, he crossed the room quietly, almost hating to disturb the peaceful sight of his comrade sleeping. Wufei pulled back the covers, fixing the yukata that Duo had apparently slept in for the sake of the man's modesty.

The first thing one had to do when waking up Duo Maxwell was to get him out of his sleeping ball. Curled up, a bomb exploding under his pillow was unlikely to rouse him. Slipping a hand between his tucked legs and his stomach, Wufei tickled Duo just enough until his pose opened up and rolled away from him in an unconscious attempt to get away. "Kaa-san…"

The Chinese agent had to climb up onto the bed for the next part, which was to get Duo to sit up, grumbling sleepily the entire time. Wufei reflected that the fact that the shinigami's half-asleep whisperings were in Japanese should have tipped them off long ago that Duo was American like they'd supposed.

Moving himself behind the violet-eyed pilot, Wufei braced his knees against the base of his back to keep Duo from leaning back to far. A quick flick of his hand removed the simple black tie holding the end of his braid together, which was when the real work began.

No matter how tightly Duo braided his hair before bed, it always managed to unravel enough over the night to be a tangled mess each morning. Wufei was only about halfway through the mass when his comrade woke enough to realize that someone was brushing his hair, and only didn't turn around because he knew that'd be a sure way to get his hair pulled.

"Fei?" he asked, straining to catch sight of that morning's waker in the corner of his eye. It felt like Wufei. Heero's style of brushing was very business-like, done with the same care and sense of efficiency he used when working on Wing. Quatre's style was overly cautious of pulling even the smallest strand, done mostly with his hands until the last few stokes to get things in order. Trowa had watched the process once before flatly declaring that he'd just put the coffee pot next to Duo's bed in the morning to brew it when the others weren't around. As for Wufei, Duo suspected that he might have had longer hair back before the war. His strokes had the right balance of gentleness and strength needed to remove the snarls without removing the hair, with a few strong runs through already brushed out portions just because they felt good. Despite the embarrassment, he liked Wufei's brushings better.

"Good morning, Duo," Wufei said, setting the brush down to work out a particularly bad snarl that the brush kept catching on without untangling. "Kurosaki's gone to wake Tsuzuki. The two of you even sleep the same."

Duo's smile could be heard from his voice. "Then it wasn't a dream. I'm really home." He felt Wufei pause. "Don't worry, I'm not going to abandon all of you guys. I've got time before I start up work here. Not as if it's hard to get from here to there."

"Do you have to ride a dragon each time?" Wufei asked, running a few final strokes through tangle-free hair and smiling as Duo leaned into the brush. Setting it aside, he began to separate it into three sections. "I don't imagine you'd be able to keep that secret for too long."

"Na, I was just too tired, and it was the first time I'd gone without Tou-san," the shinigami said with a contented sign. Getting his hair braided felt _so_ good. It was almost disappointing when Wufei tied off the end and announced that he was finished, though it did mean that he was able to turn around and face his friend. "So, you and Kaa-san already eat?"

"Some time ago," Wufei confirmed, standing up. He left the room to give Duo privacy and returned to the living room, where a still sleepy Tsuzuki waved his fingers at him from over a large mug of black coffee. "He's getting dressed."

"You still have to brush his hair?" Tsuzuki asked, eyeing Wufei. At the younger man's confusion, he pointed to several long hairs clinging to Wufei's legs. "We used to have to do the exact same thing, though it didn't take nearly as long I'm betting."

The subject of their conversation burst cheerfully into the room before they could continue any further, all smiles and grins and glomps as he made his way over to the coffee pot. An hour later and the three of them minus Hisoka, who'd left for work shortly after getting his husband up, made their way to the ministry building to meet up with Wakaba.

* * *

A/N: Sorry, no action mortal-side this chapter, but I'm not forgetting the others, so don't worry.


	11. The Imaginary World

A/N: Yay, new chapter. Hopefully, I'll get more of a response from this one than from the last. I know there was the problem with the alerts, but really. Anyway, I hope you like the new chapter, and don't forget to review.

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Eleven

The Imaginary World

When the pair of attackers were cleared after their concussions, Sally and Une let the remaining three pilots at them. Both bound men were quickly wishing the dragon _had_ killed them in the alley. With the combination of Heero's deadly and no-so-subtle threats in monotone, Quatre's emotional tidal waves of scary zero mode and guild causing teary accusations, and Trowa's silent and frigid presence in the corner of the room, the three were nothing short of terrifying.

"Do you really expect us to believe that you were attacked by a dragon?" Heero growled, white knuckled as his hands clenched the edge of the single table in the interrogation room.

"Hook us up to one of our fancy lie detectors," the taller of the two growled back. "We know what we saw. That long-haired freak of nature summoned a dragon."

"He wasn't human," the other man murmured, staring at his hands with blank eyes. He'd been rocking to himself since being brought into the room. "Not human, immortal. Death."

"Which of you injured Duo?" Quatre asked, blue eyes boring holes in the men's heads. "And where are they now?"

"The hell we know," the first said, glaring right back at the blonde. "I told you asses, the dragon knocked us out. Maybe it ate them afterwards."

The quiet one briefly lifted his eyes. "Kijin."

Heero pounced. "Where did you hear that name?"

"The dragon, he whispered, eyes clearing. "He called the dragon Kijin. He was protected by the king of thunder. Oh gods, what have we done?"

"Daniel, what are you saying?" the other demanded, outraged and confused. "That guy killed your sister!"

But Daniel had lapsed into a mantra of "We attacked a kami, we attacked a kami…"

"The shock's gotten to him," Quatre said quietly in Trowa's ear. The green-eyed man nodded and slipped out of the room.

Une was waiting outside and pulled the agent aside. "Any progress?"

"They're still insisting on the story about the dragon, and one of them has gone into psychological shock," Trowa reported. "They claim to not know where Chang or Maxwell are."

"I thought as much," the stern woman said, lips pursed. "When Chang called, he said that they were already unconscious, so unless there was a third who was unknown at that point, it wasn't one from their group. But there was something about the way he paused. I think he was hiding something."

Trowa was silence for a moment. "All calls to your phone from agents are recorded, correct?"

Une's eyes lit up. "Of course. If we could isolate the background sounds, maybe we can figure out what. Go find the tape while I rescue our guests from Winner and Yuy."

-

Of all the unexpected things about the other worlds, the fact that the Imaginary World, home to the four gods among others, existed in the internet shocked Wufei the most.

"Only the four gatekeepers know how to connect to Imaginary World," Duo explained, leaning over Wakaba's chair to watch her work. "Wakaba-chan's the keeper of the Suzaku gate. Can't remember if I met any of the other keepers."

"Just when you were a baby and Tsuzuki was showing you off to everyone he met with," the girl said with a grin and a roll of the eyes. She hit a final key. "Connected!"

Wufei covered his eyes as there was a bright flash of light. When the air was clear enough to see, he saw that two new being were held up in the air by their own crow wings. Their bodies were that of young men. "Tengu?"

"It's been a while, Kotaro, Kojiro," Tsuzuki greeted while Terazuma growled from his end of the room, glaring death at the pair.

"We've been expecting you since Kijin told us you'd returned," Kotaro, the darker skinned of the two said, focusing on Duo. "You've grown."

The shinigami-to-be shook his head. "Why does everybody say that? Did they think I was going to stay a child forever?"

The tengu exchanged a glance before Kotaro spoke up again. "Your mother did."

"Kaa-chan is dead," Duo pointed out. "I'm not."

"You were born from the dead."

"Will you just get on with it?" Terazuma grumbled. He wanted nothing more than to grab his partner away from the guards, preferably injuring Tsuzuki along the way. But going near them would mean getting within range of the spawn, and he _really _didn't want to find out if Hijiri had inherited Kurosaki's ability to release his shiki.

Duo laughed. "Okay, okay, no need to get into a fuss. You ready, Wufei?" The Chinese man nodded. "Alright then, guys, let's get this show on the road."

Kojiro shook his head while Kotaro chuckled. The two lifted their staves and a vortex of sorts seemed to grow from the air, basing around the computer Wakaba sat at. For a second time in a few minutes, Wufei was robbed of his sight as electricity crackled through the room.

Suddenly, there was no ground beneath Wufei's feet and he free-fell for only a few movements before a strong grip under each arm stopped his plummet.

"Sorry, we forgot you couldn't fly," Tsuzuki said, his voice laughing.

_Fly_. Wufei's eyes followed each of the arms holding him aloft up to Duo and his father, who were _flying_. He tried to contain his awe as both grinned down at him.

"You're missing a great view, Fei," Duo informed his, eyes growing wistful as he looked away from his comrade and around at their surroundings. "Welcome to the Imaginary World."

If Wufei hadn't known better, he would have sworn that they floated over medieval China, the grand city stretching as far as he could see. On the streets, people moved about as they would in a normal city. What they were doing, Wufei could only guess at.

It wasn't long before his feet touched down in a stone paved courtyard, theirs following soon after. Waiting by a fountain was Kijin. "I'm glad to see that you've made it here. With Chang-san, I was not sure."

"You're the first living human to come here, Hijiri aside," Tsuzuki explained when Wufei looked confused. "Since the move from beside the living world at least. I don't know about what might have happened before that."

"It is an honor then," Wufei said with a deep bow.

"Otou-san! Nii-san found them! Hijiri-kun!"

The one mortal in their group barely moved in time to avoid being bowled over by a little girl running to tackle Duo in a bone-crushing hug, squealing in delight as she was lifted and spun.

"Ten-chan, you won't believe how much I've missed you," he said, setting her down. "But how'd you recognize me?"

The girl, whom Wufei noted bore a pair of eyes to match Kijin's, wrapped one hand around the end of Duo's braid and pointed the other at his eyes. "Kurikara-san wanted you to grow your hair out, and no one else has Tsuzuki-sama's eyes. 'Sides, you smell like Hijiri-kun."

Tweaking her nose, Duo straitened up to face the far end of the courtyard. Following his gaze the striking figure of a long-haired man in robes similar to Kijin's, but more ornate, signifying a higher rank.

Approaching them, the man greeted Tsuzuki first before turning his attention to Duo with a bow. "Hijiri-san, it is a relief to see you safe again."

Duo returned the gesture with equal depth. "It is a relief to be back again, Sohryu-san. This is my comrade and friend, Chang Wufei."

Before either Wufei or Sohryu had a chance to acknowledge the introduction, a blur of black and white and green knocked Duo over. "Chibi!"

There was a muffled laugh from beneath the blur, which resolved itself into another longhaired man with a braid and a... tail? "I missed you too, Byakko."

"That's the guardian of the west?" Wufei asked in disbelief before he could stop himself. Beside him, Sohryu was shaking his head in despair. "All three of them act the same. The exact same."


	12. Phone Call

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Twelve

Phone Call

It took a few minutes to get Byakko off of Duo, though he still insisted on clinging to the braided man's arm, occasionally sniffling. By that time, Wufei was feeling seriously disillusioned about the four gods.

"So, where's Suzaku?" Tsuzuki asked, glancing around as if to spot the phoenix god running toward them.

"She mentioned something about wanted snake for dinner," Tenko said cheerfully.

"Man, is she _still _mad at him about Kyoto?" Duo asked, palming his forehead. Sohryu's children nodded. "She definitely knows how to hold a grudge. It's been over two hundred- Wufei, you may want to duck."

War instincts came to life just in time as a black clad figure flew past them, intent on avoiding the enraged woman swinging a large sword at him. "Stop running away and let me hit you!"

"Suzaku, Touda, good morning!" Tsuzuki called over the sound of their fighting. "Guess who's here!"

The woman stopped instantly, lowering her sword as she noticed the older shinigami. Seeing that he was no longer being attacked, the man relaxed, turning his head toward them, though it was difficult to see his eyes through the visor he wore.There was a moment of silence before she squealed and glomped both of them, one with each arm, her sword forgotten on the ground.

"Are they always like this?" Wufei asked Kijin, trying to keep his bewilderment from showing. _She _was Suzaku?

"Most of the time," the dragon said, nodding. "They've never really gotten along. That's Touda, by the way."

Introductions were passed around once again after everybody had been untangled. As the group moved toward Tenku palace, Wufei noticed Duo watching the skies. "Something wrong?"

"Kurikara's not here yet," Duo whispered, a little saddened. "Kijin, you did tell him I was coming here, right?"

"I asked my father to," Kijin said, glancing to the older dragon. "Father..."

Sohryu suddenly found the scenery fascinating.

"Father!"

-

The pilots had been banished from the tech lab for hovering while the background noise from the phone recording was isolated. As a result, Heero was not happy, Quatre was worried, and Trowa was... Trowa.

The door opened, a techy standing there. "Alright, you can come in now. We've done the best we can." He led them into the lab and over to the sound equipment. Une was already there, the technicians not having the rank to shove her out of anyplace she wanted to be. "Alright, this is the original recording."

There was some static before familiar voices began to emit from the speakers.

"_Une here."_

_"This is Chang. Maxwell's been shot. He's alive and the assassins..."_ There was a pause. "_The assassins are unconscious."_

_"Alright, I'll send someone over to pick them up while you get Maxwell to the hospital. You'd better be able to give me a good report when you get back."_

_"I'll try. We're in the alley between Xing street and the lower port. I think there's a pet shop on one side, and the other side looks like the back of apartments."_ There was a rustle, probably caused as the phone was removed from Wufei's ear. "_Maxwell, what are you doing?"_ The line went dead.

The techy messed with his keyboard for a moment. "Alright, this is all that we could clarify from the background."

When the speakers came to life a second time, Quatre's eyes widened at the unmistakable sound of slithering scales, claws digging into stone, and a worried trill not of human lungs.

"_That's enough, Kijin-kun. They're out."_ Duo's voice, tired and in pain.

A low, questioning rumble. "_I'll be okay. Takes more than a little bullet to take down this shinigami."_ A yelp and a small thump. "_Okay, okay. Mind taking me home? You can carry me." _A few second of pained grunts and heavy breathing. "_A little help here?"_

_"Maxwell, what are you doing?" _Once again, the line went dead.

No one spoke for a few minutes after, going over in their minds what they'd heard.

"So, there definitely was something named Kijin there, whether or not it actually was what we found in our research," Quatre said, staring at the speakers as though they held the answers.

"Duo asked it to take him _home_, which clearly did not mean his apartment," Trowa pointed out. "Where else does he consider home?"

"L2?" the blond suggested.

Heero shook his head. "Duo's said before that he's never really considered anyplace other than the Maxwell church on L2 home."

"What about where he was born?" Une suggested, speaking up for the first time. "I believe Dr. Po mentioned that she found his birth certificate in Tokyo. Going there might also speed up our access to it."

"Perhaps he has family left after all," Quatre said, a small smile forming despite the concern for his friends.

Trowa nodded at the possibility. "Or perhaps that's where the gift senders are located."

A few quick phone calls had the three pilots on the next flight to Tokyo. Millardo met them at the airport. Since he had lived with Duo for over a year, Une had thought it a good idea for the former lightning count to go as well. Hopefully, they'd be able to figure out just where their comrades had vanished off to. After all, they couldn't have just dropped out of the world.

-

Tenku palace was magnificent, and Wufei was floored to learn that it was sentient as well, one of Tsuzuki's shiki in fact. It was there that he met the rest of Duo's father's (a concept that boggled the mind on its own) shikigami, including the last of the four gods. Only one of them even came close to the image Wufei had been taught of them through the myths he'd been told as a child. The six eyed Rikugo and the faceless Taimo were simply creepy, Touda was more monotone than Heero and Trowa put together, Kochin seemed the most normal of any of them, despite the flowers, and he didn't know what to think about Daion, who looked like little more than a clay pot.

He was further confused when Suzaku announced a huge party to celebrate Duo's return where even Tenko, who he had a difficult time remembering was older than her appearance of six, drank vast amounts of sake.

Around evening, there was a sudden stillness in the festivities. Sohryu became especially tense. Tenku palace itself seemed to be attempting it keep its doors shut as they were forced open.

The being that marched in was... short, to say the least, and looked little more than a child. His hair sprung from a high ponytail that reached past his feet to encircle them on the ground. One eye was kept shut, a long scar running over it. When he spoke, it was with barely contained fury.

"Why was I not informed when _my _master was found?"


	13. Kurikara

A/N: I want to deeply thank _everyone _(whether they apolized or rebuked) who responded to the last chapter. It soothed more worries than I can list. I'd like to inform you all that the note came out a lot harsher than I meant it to be, for which I apologize. And now, I give you the newest chapter, which I hope you enjoy.

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Thirteen

Kurikara

Everyone stood at a standstill for a few heart-stopping moments, Tsuzuki's twelve shiki subtly moving between their master and the newcomer. Then the silence was quite efficiently shattered when Duo broke between Byakko and Rikugo with a shout. "Kurikara!"

The dragon opened his arms to receive the future shinigami as Duo dropped to his knees to hug him around the middle. Kurikara sent a final glare at Sohryu before he focused on the young man in his arms, face softening. "Hijiri. Your hair's gotten so long."

"I've never cut it," Duo said, releasing his shiki and standing up. Swift fingers caught the end of his braid and Wufei saw his morning's work undone.

Kurikara slowly circled his master before nodding in approval. Claw tipped fingers hooked a loop of hair, lifting auburn silk to the lamplight. He smiled. "I knew you'd be beautiful."

Duo flushed, playfully slapping Kurikara's hands away. "Don't try to flatter me, Kuri-chan."

"Not flattery when it's true, Kenko." (1)

"Kuri-chan," Duo whined with his best attempt to glare. At the dragon's smirk, he sighed heavily, shaking his head. "Wufei, I want you to meet Kurikara, my shiki. Kuri-chan, this is Chang Wufei of the Dragon clan of L5."

Wufei tried not to fidget as he as examined by the child-like man, especially when the single open eye fixed on his face. "I'll want to talk to you, later." His focus turned back to Deathscythe's former pilot. "For now, we're going to find a corner somewhere and _you_ are going to fill me in on the past sixteen years."

Duo didn't resist as he was dragged off. "Well," Tsuzuki said, blinking. "At least nothing's broken."

-

At it turned out, Tokyo was one of the few major cities where the Winner family did not own a house. The four of them found lodgings at a small hotel that had clearly seen better days.

"We've stayed in worse," Quatre said as Millardo stared at the building in disbelief. "During the war."

"It looks like opening the door might make it fall to pieces," the former OZ said frankly. "Surely the Preventers can afford better than this for its top agents."

"Tokyo branch has always run on a tight budget," Heero said, tossing Trowa's bag to him before shutting the trunk of their taxi and hitting the top to send it off. "There are a lot of unexplained building damages they have to repair."

"Any similarities to the mysterious damage to the alley walls where Duo and Wufei were attacked?" Quatre asked as Trowa slid open the inn door, which, thankfully enough, did not cause the building to fall down in front of them.

"Frighteningly similar," Heero said flatly as they followed the clown inside. A woman looking as old as the inn greeted them and directed the group to a pair of rooms and informed them that dinner was at five.

After settling in (read, setting up security around the old fashioned inn), the four met in Heero and Millardo's room.

"Tokyo's a big city. Where do we start searching?" Quatre asked.

"You and Trowa should head straight to Tokyo General to see about the birth certificate," Heero said, unfolding a map of the city. "Millardo and I will start off with some of the local shrines."

"Shrines?" the smaller blond asked, startled.

"Duo may have dressed as a Catholic priest during the war, but he has a small Shinto shrine in his closet at the apartment," Millardo said, placing his chin on folded hands. "He prays to Enma Daioh."

-

Wufei had to admit that he felt little at odds in the imaginary world without Duo to be his guide, but the feeling began to fade as he found people to tell him about their most mysterious pilot.

"_I _taught him to braid his hair," Tenko informed the mortal cheerfully. "Nanny taught _me _so that I could help with my hair."

"Tsuzuki-san used to bring Hijiri-kun here quite a bit to play with Tenko," Kijin said. "There are very few children in Meifu, and most of them only look like children, having died young."

"Solo," Wufei said suddenly, remembering gold eyes and blonde hair. The two shiki looked at him in confusion. "On Duo's birthday, there was a young man who Duo apparently knew from when they were children. We ran into a boy the next day with the same name and face who claimed to be the man's nephew, but he was acting too old to be a child."

Kijin nodded. "He was probably a shinigami, using a fuda to appear older."

"A lot of L2's shinigami over the years have been children, but they usually don't last long," Tenko said, grave for a child. "They work for the American ministry. L1 belongs to the Japanese branch, L3 to... the Italian branch? L4 goes to the Arabian branch. They haven't split up like the human world did." (2)

"I take it that L5 belongs to the Chinese branch then," Wufei said, actually rather curious about the matter.

"It's still a bit of a mess because of the destruction, but things should be straightened out by the time reconstruction is done, yes," Kijin said. "In fact, we've met L5's shinigami. They're interesting people, though I heard that one of the ones we met transferred five or six years ago."

"Do you know why?"

"A noblewoman of his clan demanded the position and challenged him for it. She won."

-

To Quatre, Tokyo General seemed more museum than hospital, and a good portion of the nurses and doctors they saw passing by looked to belong in either as inhabitants.

"Excuse me, but we're from the Preventers' Headquarters," he said politely to the aging receptionist, careful to speak clearly in case she was hard of hearing. "Commander Une sent an inquiry about a birth certificate." Getting no response, he opened his mouth to repeat his statement louder before getting cut off.

"I heard you fine the first time, boy," she said, narrowing grey eyes at his uniform. He and Trowa had donned them before leaving to give a more official and united front in case there were difficulties. "And I know the one your boss meant. Why should I give it to you?"

At a loss for words, Quatre's mind spun for a possible reason that might satisfy the woman. Thankfully, Trowa stepped in to rescue him. "We believe that it may belong to one of our fellow agents, whose origins were lost during the war. His coloring is very distinctive, so there should be little trouble figuring if it's him."

Pursing her lips, the woman gave them a sharp look before turning to shout to the one person under fifty in the building, a young twenty year-old intern who looked to have seen better days. "Mai, get me the Tsuzuki kid's file."

_Tsuzuki. _Sharing a glance, both pilots filed away the name in their minds. Was it Duo's real surname?

--

--

1. Roughly, little sword. Seems like a nickname the sword smith would give.

2. No idea who would be in charge of L3. So I guessed, but not even Tenko's sure, so it might change.


	14. Ancestor

A/N: Hiya lovely peoples! New chapter's up, and I hope you like it. It might be a little short, but I stopped where it sounded right to do so. So, enough of my ramblings, on with the chapter!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Fourteen

Ancestor

"Tsuzuki Hijiri. Duo's birth name was Tsuzuki Hijiri."

There was silence over the table after Quatre's announcement. Glancing at their faces, the blond fished out the copied file from his briefcase. He opened it to the infamous birth certificate.

"Mother, Kurosaki Hisoka. Father, Tsuzuki Asato," Trowa read, taking over. "Test tube birth on January 14th, AC 180. The location was left blank."

"Those names were on his card," Heero said with narrowed eyes. "He said his parents were dead."

"Some people sign future birthday cards for their children if they know they're dying," Quatre said, going through the possibilities in his mind. "Or they may not actually be his parents. The staff did say that they'd never actually seen him when the file showed up. The witnessing doctor, Watari Yutaka, was also a name on the card."

"And present in the photos, based on his drawing," Millardo said, staring at the xeroxed footprints in fascination. _So little..._

"Did you find anything from your search of the shrines?" Quatre asked.

"Ghost stories and rumors only," Heero said with a snort. "Apparently a purple eyed man, a demon according to some, died a couple of hundred years ago not too far away. Suicide. They claim that he's seen every now and then around the city, usually in the company of a young man."

"Did any of them mention seeing him with a child?" Trowa asked, interested.

Millardo nodded. "One. He was the only priest not to refer to the man as a demon, though he did agree with the rest of the story. This-" He picked up the stack of photos from Duo's apartment and shuffled through them until he came to the festival pictures. "-was the shrine in his picture. He described their yukata perfectly even before I showed him the photo."

"How did he describe the man?" Trowa asked, tapping the cut-off man in the photo.

"Tall, broad-shouldered and young, twenty at the oldest," the prince continued. "With the exact same coloring as our Duo."

"If Duo was in Japan as a child, then why did he end up growing up on L2?" Quatre asked, perplexed. "Traveling from L1 to L2 I can understand, but going from Earth to a colony that doesn't even speak Japanese?"

Trowa shook his head in amusement. "Duo does nothing in halves, not even when getting lost."

-

Kurikara brought Duo back the following morning during breakfast, and Wufei tried not to stare too obviously at the future shinigami.

Sometime during their absence, his comrade had changed out of his usual style of black clothing into what the Chinese man had not expected to see on a human outside of a silk painting.

His outer robe alone could have fed the entirety of L2 for a week, and Wufei was surprised that Duo had been convinced to wear it instead of selling it for just that purpose. There were several others of equal value layered beneath it, partially covered with a pair of hakama clearly designed to be worn only in the smooth grounds of a wealthy household.

"You stay here and... socialize," the dragon instructed, gently shoving his master toward where Tsuzuki and Byakko were watching. Kurikara's attention turned toward Wufei. "You, come with me. We need to talk."

Despite the shiki's diminutive stature, Wufei found himself nearly having to run to keep up with him as Kurikara abruptly turned and began to walk away from the group. "What is it?"

Kurikara shook his head, not answering until they were well away from even Sohryu or Byakko's hearing range. "Was your grandfather's name Chang Mao?"

Wufei blinked, startled. "Yes. How did you know?"

"Were you once married to a woman named Long Meiran?" the dragon continued, ignoring his question. Confused, the human nodded. "Then there're some people you need to talk to." A red eye narrowed. "Don't breath a word to Sohryu about this. He doesn't know I have the ability."

Before Wufei could ask what Kurikara was talking about, something _grabbed _at his soul, calling him. It was brief, but even that moment was enough to leave him breathless. The dragon's eyes softened a little at the sight, seeing the confirmation for what it was, before offering the Chang head a steadying hand and turning his eyes skyward.

Wufei was still trying to regain his composure when they came flying from the sky. Both were Chinese, one a man of about fifty while the other was a girl of only fourteen at the oldest. With Wufei's face still turned downward as he caught his breath, neither party could see the other's faces.

"Honored ancestor," the man greeted as he and his companion set down, bowing deeply. "How may we be of service?"

"My master has been found," Kurikara said. "He's with the four guardians at the moment, but you know he cannot remain here for too long now that he's built a life in the human realm."

"Ancestor, surely you aren't suggesting that we abandon our posts to guard him," the man gasped, startled.

Kurikara laughed. "No, of course not. I don't want the old man to cancel his contracts with you. Besides, it's the duty of the head of the clan."

"My husband is not dead, Kurikara-sama," the girl said, finally speaking up. "He still remains in the living world."

Wufei froze. He knew that voice as well as he knew his own. Looking up, he saw her, still bearing the face she had possessed the day she'd died, a face that was currently wide-eyed as his was.

Time had clearly left a mark on them, what had once been three months separating them changing into seven years. Wufei had gained over a foot on height on her, and an amount of width as well. But for them, there was still no mistaking of identity.

"Meiran?"


	15. Painting

A/N: I graduate in less than a month! That means I'll soon have much more time to write fanfiction as summer sets in, and will hopefully be able to finish most of my current fics so that I can begin on a few of the plots I have bouncing around in my head. Anywho, I hope you enjoy the new chapter and leave me a nice tasty review! Love you lots!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Fifteen

Painting

When she had died, Meiran had never expected to see her husband again. He had always seemed to have too much of a practical nature to become a shinigami. She especially hadn't expected to see him in the imaginary world before he had actually died.

At least he was as shocked as she was.

"Ancestor, why is my grandson here?" Mao asked, eyes wide. "Humans are forbidden!"

"Well, the old man's always making exceptions when Hijiri-kun is involved," Kurikara said, waving off the shinigami's concerns. "He brought Wufei home to Meifu with him, and then here. And since both of them are here, I figured there was something that you should explain to our descendant."

Catching the dragon's meaning, Mao 'meeped,' the sound startling Wufei and Meiran. From what they'd heard and seen, Chang Mao did not 'meep.'

"Could I perhaps see Hijiri-sama before that?" the elder Chang asked hopefully. "I haven't since he was very little. I'm sure he's changed a lot since then."

Kurikara considered the offer for a while before nodding. "But don't tell them that I called you."

Duo was scratching Byakko behind the ears of his true form when they arrived back near the Kenku palace, but he stopped to stare at Mao when he caught sight of their group. "I know you."

"I used to sometimes watch you as a child," the Chinese man said, staring back at him with something Wufei could have sworn was awe.

Duo's face brightened. "Mao-san! You started to teach me the sword." He suddenly started to glance between Mao and Wufei. "Wait a second... I should have known. That's why Fei always looked so familiar."

"It's not the only reason," Kurikara murmured.

"How many people _do_ you know?" Wufei asked his comrade, deciding to ask about the dragon's comment later. "Those people at the nightclub-"

"Dead," Duo added in cheerfully.

Wufei continued on. "My grandfather-"

"Also dead."

"-the four gods-"

"Work for my dad."

"-Kurikara-"

"Works for me."

"-and that couple you were chatting with at the club," the mortal finished. "Who's next, King Enma?"

Everyone suddenly found the surroundings very interesting, especially Duo and Mao. Wufei was almost afraid to ask.

"You know how I said that I was a test-tube baby?" Duo asked cautiously. Wufei nodded slowly. "Well, he's the one who removed me from the tank. King Enma was the first person I ever saw."

"That's right, you're due for a visit soon, aren't you?" Kurikara said, snapping his fingers. "And he'll probably want it to be longer because of all the years you've missed it."

Duo grinned. "Bet Dad won't be happy about that. He used to always get nervous when I went to Enma-sama's halls."

"Probably worrying that the old man's not going to let you leave one of these years," the dragon said, ignoring his descendants' shocked expressions over his form of address. "Alright, Mao, you've talked to him. Now go talk to Wufei."

Mao cringed but nodded, leading his grandson away from the group. "This might take a while."

-

The four agents went back to the shrine where 'Hijiri' had been seen the following morning. The priest was waiting for them at the top of the stairs when they arrived. Another man stood with him.

"You've brought reinforcements," the old priest said, his eyes crinkling.

Millardo smirked. "So have you."

The new man snorted. "Not this old geezer. He doesn't need back-up against the likes of you."

"This is David Kelly, formerly of L2 before he came here," the priest said in introduction. "He too has seen your child. Come inside. My living room is more comfortable than the shrine."

And it was, with modest furniture and modern conveniences. The six men arranged themselves on various chairs and the couch, Kelly electing to sit on the floor in front of the television. He picked up a rolled canvas that had been leaning against the wall and held it in his lap.

"I was a wandering artist during part of the war," he said, getting comfortable. "Like I said, I originally came from L2, though I left about, oh, eight years before the war ended."

"Before which you saw Agent Maxwell," Heero said, eyes narrowed. The man was holding something back.

"If we're thinking about the same boy, then how the mighty have fallen to be working with the likes of the Preventers," Kelly said, shaking his head. He removed the rubber band from the canvas and unrolled it onto the floor. The agents couldn't help but to gasp sharply. "I call this one 'Heaven's Orphan Son.' I've never sold it or any copies."

The boy in the painting was undoubtedly Duo, though dressed in a way that even Quatre and Millardo had only seen in Japanese ink paintings.

His hair was tied in a small bun like that of a Chinese prince, including two very ornate hair sticks. Embroidered slippers peeked from under rich brown hakama. His outer kimono was green with a pattern of dragon's on it.

He was stretched out in profile, running to escape the smoking rubble that surrounded him. Tears made streaks on dust-grayed cheeks. And behind him, snagged on a chunk of vertical concrete, was a milky white scarf that still floated on the air, reaching for him.

"How much of this was done through artists' license?" Quatre asked, voice shaking as he fought the urge to try and reach into the canvas and comfort the child depicted on it. _Oh Duo..._

The painter shrugged. "The exact pattern on his shoes and kimono, the neatness of his hair. It'd mostly come down by the time I spotted him. There were also tears and burns on his clothing. I didn't think they'd have as much of an effect. Otherwise, I might as well have taking a photograph."

"Where was this?" Trowa asked.

"That,' Kelly said matter-of-factly, "was where the L2 capital building used to be. I was working as an office intern when it was attacked. Started working as a painter afterwards. You can check the records if you're skeptical."

Millardo was on the phone to Une the moment that they'd left the grounds. "We have the records and several leads. Now we need the satellite feed from the L2 capital building for the last few hours before they cut off with the destruction."

"Why those?" Une asked, jotting down the specifics."

"We think Duo might have been there when it was attacked." The prince's lips thinned. "It might have been when his parents died."


	16. Video and Dragon Blood

A/N: Only been two months since my last update, which isn't too bad considering the track record for some of my fics. I really hope you like this chapter, which is brought to you from Miami Beach, Florida, where I'm vacationing this month. That means no work, no mother, and no constant stream of company coming through the house. Just nice beaches, my muse of a little sister, and all the free time I could ever wish for with the occasional roller coaster to break up the days. So, updates may come a little faster, as long as I'm motivated by encouraging reviews. Enjoy the chapter!

Living Shinigami

Chapter Sixteen

Video and Dragon Blood

The four pilots were glad to be able to return to their own offices and their own apartments, which didn't look like they were about to fall apart. Une had already set the techies on retrieving the requested video sections. While they waited, they tried to figure out just what had happened in the past of one Duo Maxwell.

For short term, all four agents had moved into one conference office to better work on their solitary case, with what they'd gathered written or taped up on a giant white board. The painting, on loan, had been framed and hung in plain view along with the photos from Duo's desk and apartment.

No contact from either missing pilot had resulted in the remaining ones nearly pouncing on the poor phone every time it rang, in hopes that it would be Duo or Wufei. No such call arrived, but they did get one from the techies immediately upon the readiness of the video.

When they arrived at the lab, a grim-faced Une had had already beaten them there. "You definitely need to see this."

"You found him on the video?" Quatre asked, clutching the back of one techie's chair with white knuckled hands.

"Did we _ever_," the man said. "Your friend used to live one high end life, even if his father dressed like a member of the yazuka."

Heero pounced, making the man jump. "His father's in the video? How can you tell?"

Eying the former pilot 01 nervously, the tech reached forward to start the gathered video clips. "See for yourself. L2 was one of the first to do color security videos. Unless you think there are people with that coloring in other families, he's blood."

"We gathered feed from all of the cameras we could find to follow the three of them," another tech said as the image of a lobby came into view on the screen. "They should be coming in right about… now."

Four breaths were drawn collectively as 'they' did indeed come in. Duo, dressed as he had been in the painting, was being carried on the arm of a tall, brown haired man in sunglasses that did little to hide his laughing face. True to word, he wore a large black trench coat not too different from the one Duo had worn out in town the night of his birthday.

The person with them looked very feminine, and it wasn't actually all that clear on whether or not 'he' was a man. Quatre was about to ask when Trowa tapped the screen just over the blond in the video. "Kurosaki Hisoka? Can we get a closer look at her left hand?"

"I can try," the tech said, and a moment later they had it.

"It's the same ring," Millardo said with a nod. "I believe that we have Duo's mother."

The video went back to its standard view and continued to follow the trio as they passed by the front desk before heading to the elevator. The two adults, whom they assumed were Duo's parents, appeared to be bickering slightly. But due to the lack of sound, they couldn't tell what was being said. Duo slept with his head on his father's shoulder, oblivious.

The camera switched to the elevator view, which looked strange due to the angle. Duo's father, Asato, jostled his son until sleepy eyes opened. Quatre and Une both let out a soft coo as the child pilot yawned, stretching with small fists clenched. Tweaking Duo's nose, Asato removed his sunglasses and tucked them into a pocket. The cheerful violet eyes revealed left no question that he was Duo's father, if any had remained before.

The view switched again when they left the elevator on the fifth floor, according to the small notation in the corner of the picture. Duo was set down to stand on his own in front of the secretarial desk while his parents spoke to the woman seated there. They held a brief conversation before Asato bent down to speak to Duo, pointing to the woman as he explained something to the boy. Glancing over the desk, he looked at her for a moment before nodding to his parents and releasing their hands, which he'd been previously holding tightly onto.

The group split ways as Duo headed behind the desk and his parents went down a hallway and disappeared behind one of the many doors. There was a ten minute jump in the time stamp before the flames began to emerge from the door they'd went through. A few moments later and the screen dissolved into static. The techie switched off the video.

"There's not much to see, but I'd say it's a miracle that your friend survived, especially at such a young age and in a tricky outfit like that. It'd be nearly impossible to run," the techie said, shaking his head. "If I didn't know better, I'd put some stock in what your suspect said about him not being human."

"Kami coming down to earth only occurs in myth," Heero said with a snort. "We've seen Duo survive plenty of difficult situations. That's why he was our stealth specialist."

Quatre didn't have anything to say in reply to that as Millardo and Trowa exchanged a silent glance. If anyone in their group had a chance at being supernatural, it was Duo.

-

Wufei figured that with how nervous his grandfather looked as he led him away from the group, he probably should be feeling the same way. When they'd walked a suitable distance, Mao gestured for him to sit down on a low garden wall.

"How much do you know about how our clan gained the title of Dragon Clan?" the shinigami asked, sitting down beside Wufei.

"Family legend says that we're descent from a dragon," Wufei said cautiously. He suddenly recalled the title Moa had been using for Kurikara. "You don't mean-"

"That we are the descendants of Kurikara himself?" Mao questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, we are. His fifth child, a son, escaped to the mortal world after the battle with Sohryu and started a family. He's kept in contact with those that pass on to become shinigami, like me and Meiran's grandfather before he moved on."

"But if we serve our ancestors and Kurikara serves Duo, then…" the pilot trailed off, eyes widening as he looked over Mao's shoulder to see where Duo was chatting happily with Meiran.

"Exactly, my grandson," the man said calmly. "There's something about the events surrounding Hijiri-sama's birth that you do not yet know. You should get comfortable. It's not the shortest tale."


	17. Oath

A/N: Wow, two chapters in such a short time! Extra long too. I must be on a roll. As you'll notice in short order, we are officially in flashback mode. Enjoy.

Living Shinigami

Chapter Seventeen

Oath

Twenty-one years ago:

Chang Mao and Long Chen were nervous enough sitting in the presence of Enma to give a report directly to the kami. With the recent politics in the living world, high profile cases were becoming more and more difficult and delicate, meaning that more shinigami were giving their reports to the top.

What made it even worse was the fact that their lord seemed preoccupied over something, divine eyes glancing toward the door every few minutes. Curiosity overcoming him, Mao was just about to ask what was bothering Enma when the door opened and a woman entered with a child in her arms. The shinigami drew breath as they noticed the tenshi's robe wrapped around the infant.

"This one apologizes for her lateness," the woman said with a deep bow to the kami. "We thought it best to feed him as well."

Their curiosity was roused further when Enma raised an eyebrow at her, but she seemed to know what the expression meant. "There was no change in his spirit, Enma-dono. He is as he was."

As she knelt down and better settled the child in her arms, Mao couldn't help but to peer into the robe to get a clearer look at him. He and his partner drew a sharp breath.

"He is beautiful," Mao whispered in awe, taking in bright violet eyes that looked at him far too clearly. Tearing his own eyes away, he looked to his lord for permission. Enma nodded before apparently turning his attention inward. Free to focus his attention elsewhere, Mao carefully extended a hand toward the baby, who reached up to tightly grab hold of a pinky. Mao smiled. "He's almost the same age as my grandson."

They were only allowed to fawn over the child for a little while longer before Enma himself took hold of him and dismissed all three of them from the audience chamber. Barely five steps from the closed door and they rounded on the woman.

"Who is he?" Chen asked, gesturing back at the room. "Where did he come from?"

"He's the son of two shinigami, according to Daisuke-san, who spoke directly to Enma-dono," she said in an excited whisper. "His name is Hijiri."

"But it's impossible for shinigami to bear children!" Mao said, shaking his head.

"That's what we all thought, but they've done it," she stressed. "I haven't found which ministry the parents are from yet, but we're sure to learn about it soon."

"His name's Japanese, so it stands to reason that he's from there," Mao reasoned.

"Or possibly the American ministry," Chen suggested with a shrug. "You can never tell with them."

"Very true."

-

Mao was irritated. All he'd wanted to do was deliver his report before returning to Enma's halls to see if the child Hijiri, who rumor now painted as the chosen son of the death lord himself, was still there. But when he'd stopped in at his office to alert the chief of his plans, he'd been told that he was to go over to Japan in preparation for a joint case.

"Calm down," Chen tried to tell him for the seventh time in the span of two hours as they began to make their way up the steps of the Japanese ministry building. "He may not even be in his halls anymore. Hijiri-sama was originally the child of shinigami. He may have been returned to them."

His partner didn't even dignify the suggestion with a response as he entered the grand building. A few of the Japanese shinigami glanced up from their desks in curiosity, but they paid them no heed other than to offer polite nods of acknowledgment. This particular branch of the ministry was well known for its unorthodox mannerisms and treatment of cases that often led to expensive damages. However, it was also famous for containing the only shinigami to possess twelve shiki, Tsuzuki Asato, the very shinigami they'd be working with. Until recently, he was the only man to ever possess violet eyes.

An infant's screams startled Mao out of his musings. _It couldn't be…_

"Ah, Watari-san! He won't stop crying!"

"Have you tried feeding him?"

"Feeding, burping, changing; I've tried everything!" The girl's voice sounded absolutely panicked.

Sharing a look of disbelief, the two Chinese shinigami quickly followed the cries to an office containing two blondes and a screaming baby. A dark haired man lurked in the corner, staying as far away from the chaos as possible.

"Thank goodness you're here," the teenage girl gushed the moment she noticed their presence. "Tsuzuki-san and Hisoka-kun had to go on a short notice mission, but they should be back by this evening. So could you keep an eye on Hijiri-kun until then?"

Before he knew it, Mao found himself with an armful of yukata clad, tenshi robe wrapped, newborn shinigami. He barely had time to blink before the three were gone and they were left alone with the very baby Mao had wanted to see. Instantly, Hijiri stopped crying.

"Well, we can't leave until Tsuzuki and Kurosaki get back here anyway, so we might as well," Chen said, breaking the silence.

They'd taken Hijiri out to the Sakura orchid and sat with him for a couple of hours when Mao's head shot up.

"Kurikara's calling me," he said, clutching Hijiri closely to him.

"We'll just have to take Hijiri-sama with us," Chen said in understanding. When the dragon king called, you did not make him wait.

Once his partner had grasped hold of him, Mao slipped through the worlds as only a shinigami descendent from Kurikara could, appearing in the sky of the imaginary world just above where he waited in human form.

"Ancestor," Mao greeted with a bow upon landing.

They looked up in time to see a surprised expression on the dragon's face as he noticed Hijiri in Mao's arms. The look almost instantly melted into a grin as the baby reached out for him with shrieking giggles.

Kurikara reached out his arms to receive the child, meaning that Mao had no choice but to hand him over. "Hello there, little master. I didn't think I'd get to see you again so soon."

Mao and Chen choked before the former spoke up. "_Master_, ancestor? Surely you don't mean-"

The short yet powerful shiki looked up at them with a raised eyebrow. "I _do_ mean, my descendent. I've chosen this boy as my master. Both of his fathers tried and failed to conquer me, but he had me entrapped since the moment he was born. In fact, it's fortunate that you brought him. There's something I want you to do in the living world for me. I've already gained the old man's clearance for the two of you."

-

"This is insane," Chen whispered as they entered the Chang compound, still invisible as they carried the finally sleeping infant. "We're not supposed to contact living family members."

"We have permission," Mao countered, slipping through the door of what he remembered as a nursery. Catching sight of the few month old baby sleeping within, he couldn't help but to smile. "Hello, Wufei."

"He's getting pretty big already, isn't it?" Chen asked fondly. "Four months old already."

His partner nodded, gently laying Hijiri down next to his sleeping grandson. As though sensing someone in his space, Wufei rolled over halfway to clutch at Hijiri. Mao leaned on the edge of the crib, looking down on them. "Wufei, this is Hijiri-sama. When you grow up, you'll become his guardian. Protect him and serve him." He chuckled softly. "With Tsuzuki Asato as a father, he's going to need all of the help he can get."

Watching them with amusement, Chen left the room to go find his son and daughter-in-law. She and Mao's were childhood friends as where their husbands, so spend a good amount of time together at one family home or the other during their pregnancies. Chen's granddaughter, Meiran, was due soon.

Left to his own devices, Mao ran a hand over both heads with their sparse hair. Dark eyes opened and looked up at him fuzzily. Smiling, he lifted one child on each arm before moving over to the empty rocking chair. Between the late hour, the multitude of shocks in a single day, and the smell of clean baby, he soon drifted off to sleep.

He woke up to a sharp gasp, eyes flying wide to see his son staring at him from a pale face. "F-father? What- How- You're dead!"

Mao quickly motioned for silence as well as he could with his arms full. "Jun, they're asleep, and _only_ asleep, I assure you."

Jun's eyes focused in on the younger of the two children. Or, more precisely, on the robe drifting around him. "Who is he?"

"A child that our oldest ancestor has sworn service to and that Enma himself has held in his arms and declared his," Mao said, shifting said boy as his violet eyes blinked open. "Here, come take Wufei from me so I can stand up."

The current clan head was quick to do just that, moving back the moment he had his son in his possession. He had felt the cold from his father.

"Why are you haunting us?" he asked, clutching his son tightly. "Is there some task, some promise left unkept-"

"My son, I'm not haunting anyone," Mao said with a light laugh. "I wasn't really supposed to come into contact with you, but it should be fine. I'm merely paying a short visit to introduce Hijiri-sama to his future guardian."

"His guardian?" Jun asked, looking down at his son as he made the connection. "Wufei?"

"When they're older, possibly after Wufei's died like I have," Mao clarified. "That's when our ancestor Kurikara usually contacts us. So, how's your mother?"

"Enduring," Jun said cautiously as he returned Wufei to his crib. "She misses you."

Mao's eyes went a little sad. "She's the one who I am absolutely forbidden to visit. We're usually not allowed to be seen by any friends or family, though we can keep an eye on them. One of the perks of our job."

They stood in silence for a few moments before Mao turned away, regretfully returning to his spirit state. Knowing that his father had to leave, Jun bowed respectfully low, not rising until he and his son were, as far as he could see, alone.

Invisible, Mao waited until Chen returned. Neither of them spoke as they returned to the Japanese ministry, but Hijiri's cheerful gurgles made enough noise to efficiently cover the silence.


	18. Birth of Shinigami

A/N: New chapter once again! And yes, we're still in flashback mode. You've been warned. But we'll be out of it soon. I just need to get Duo's origins out of the way before I can continue much further.

Living Shinigami

Chapter Eighteen

Birth of Shinigami

Duo didn't know exactly what Kurikara had been so insistent on having Mao tell Wufei, but the wide-eyed glances he kept getting from his comrade gave him a pretty good idea. His third father had not kept his claim secret from him during his yearly visits. When it looked like Mao's storytelling was over, he met Wufei's glance with a small smile and nod.

Kurikara'd made the details of his oath quite clear to him when they were away from the others, making sure he understood the parts that he hadn't needed to when he'd been only six but were now important as he was of age. The dragon had not only sworn his service, but that of his descendants as well. Wufei's. Things would certainly be different from here on out.

He made eye contact with Mao, the elder Chinese man taking the cue to move away as he slowly headed toward Wufei. They didn't speak until Duo'd comfortably arranged himself on the wall beside the other pilot.

"I take it that your grandfather told you about when I was younger," he said, trying to break the ice.

Wufei nodded. "To think, I've fought beside you for years and never guessed that you were anything but human, much less the chosen son of King Enma himself."

"Doesn't mean that I'm anything but the same guy you chased around the safe houses or read with during the war," Duo said firmly, rubbing his temples. "So don't you dare start treating me any different. At least not when we can avoid it."

"Good, because I'm not about to start bowing down to you or calling you 'my lord,'" Wufei said with a smirk, shoving his friend's shoulder gently. "So, how exactly _were_ you born? Well, maybe not the 'how.' From the sounds of it, no one's quite sure. Tell me the events."

Duo grinned, stretching. "Now _that_ I can tell you. Mind you, everything I know about then in second hand. I don't exactly remember, since I was a baby and all. But my fathers did tell me much of the event."

Flashback:

Tsuzuki rested his spread hand against the glass, gazing in awe and joy at the infant floating within the tank, eyes closed in the restful sleep of pre-birth. "Hello, Hijiri-kun."

Slight arms encircled his waist from behind and a forehead was pressed between his shoulder blades. "Tomorrow, Asato."

"Aa, Hisoka," he murmured softly, laying a hand on the smaller pair clasped over his stomach. "Just one more day." He pulled his husband around to hug him to his front. "We'll be parents soon."

"He's beautiful," Hisoka whispered, the soft glow from the heating lamps reflecting from his eyes. Behind them, a door opened, the sound accompanied by the soft 'hoot' of an owl. "Thank you, Watari."

"Just let me be the kid's godfather and we'll be even," the blond scientist said, stepping up next to them, eyes on the tank as well. "My best work to date, I should think."

Soft laughter bubbled up from the three, only to have it freeze in their throats as a presence entered the room. They knew that power; it was what gave them life.

Within a moment, the three were on their knees, their faces close to the floor. "Enma-dono."

Silk whispered as the kami moved, close enough that they could feet the brush of the cloth against their fingertips. "My children, what have you _done_?"

If they had been beating, Hisoka and Tsuzuki's hearts would have stopped when Enma stepped away from them and there was a shattering of glass.

The synthetic embryonic fluids washed over their hands, warm against their chilled skid. Inside their heads ran a mantra of _no, no, no… _

Enma stared at the child lying on the bottom of the broken tank. His hand slowly came down to still the tiny heart. The dead could not be allowed to create life. But then the infant's eyes opened, Enma's fingertips only a breath away from its chest.

Caught in violet, the god couldn't move. There was something in those eyes that was more than simply a human child, even one created by his precious shinigami. His hands changed path and intent; instead of killing the infant, he lifted it into his arms. Content, it fell back to sleep.

"I will take him with me," he said, tearing his eyes from the child. "Asato, Hisoka, come to my hall in ten days. Yutaka, you shall not attempt to create life again."

"Hai, Enma-dono," the three intoned, Tsuzuki's voice cracking. He was sure that Hijiri would be killed at the very least, their own punishment aside.

-

Child in arms, Enma willed himself back to his halls, ignoring the servants who rushed around him to worry over his abrupt departure. He summoned one forward and handed the infant to her. "Wash him and return him to me."

The woman bowed and vanished into the hallways. He was approached by his head of staff, who bowed deeply before speaking. "If it is not too daring to ask, Enma-dono, the boy…"

"His name is Hijiri, the child of two of my shinigami," Enma said, closing his eyes in thought.

The other man's eyes widened. "How can that be?"

The god sighed. "I wish I knew."

Hijiri had been wrapped in a tenshi's robe by the time his newly appointed nurse carried him into Enma's audience chamber, where he was holding a meeting with a pair of Chinese shinigami.

"This one apologizes for her lateness," the nurse said, bowing humbly. "We thought it best to feed him as well."

Enma lifted an eyebrow. She of all people should have known better than to give the food of the kami to a mortal. There were reasons many of their servants had once been mortal.

"There was no change in his spirit, Enma-dono," she said, correctly reading his glance. "He is as he was."

"He is beautiful," one of the shinigami, Chang Mao, said, openly staring at the impossible child. Hijiri laughed, as though able to understand the praise, eyes too focused for a newborn looking at the man before a pudgy hand reached out. After receiving a nod from their lord, Mao extended a hand to the child, smiling when his pinky was firmly grasped. "He's almost the same age as my grandson."

While the child was fawned over, Enma allowed himself to sink into his own thoughts. A child of shinigami who was supposedly mortal but ate their food without effect, all the while trapping even the kami with those eyes. What had his children created?

When he held out his arms, the nurse placed Hijiri in them. Immediately, the child latched onto Enma's kimono, clinging to him with more than an infant's strength, body and spirit.

Forcing back any outward reactions, he dismissed the three. Once they were gone and he was alone with the boy, Enma allowed some semblance of wonder to enter his eyes. Not since the birth of Izanagi and Izanami had he sensed the same power in a child.

"Asato and Hisoka may be your parents by birth, but you will be my son as well," he whispered, laying a hand over Hijiri's chest. His soul was warm.

-

Tsuzuki and Hisoka were terrified as they kneeled in wait for Enma-dono to arrive in his audience chamber. They were dressed in formal kimono, curtsey of Yuma and Saya, who were overjoyed at being allowed to dress Hisoka up, uninformed of the reasons why.

Outside of the three who had played a part in Hijiri's 'birth,' only the Gushoshin knew about him. The idea was for one of them to simply carry him into the office one day, or for Watari to bring him out of the lab, and shock everybody. Especially Tatsumi and Terazuma.

The two shinigami bowed low as the doors finally opened and Enma entered, a servant behind him.

"Asato, Hisoka," the kami greeted gently as he took a seat. "You may look at me."

They rose up onto their knees, eyes still slightly lowered. Hisoka risked a glance up, and gasped. Following his husband's stare, Tsuzuki had to hold back tears of relief.

Smiling gently, Enma waved the servant forward to hand him the infant. Hijiri woke up and giggled, waving his arms at the god. "It has been decided that you may keep your son on the requirement that he is brought here for ten days every year around the anniversary of his birth. Raise him well."

Decorum aside, the couple couldn't help but to grin and cry in pure joy and relief as Hijiri was placed in their arms. Two pairs of violet eyes met, one curious while the other held only love.

The infant was quiet as his parents returned to the ministry, nearly invisible among Hisoka and Tsuzuki's sleeves as both held him, beaming down at the perfect bundle.

As fortune would have it, Terazuma and Wakaba were the first to notice them in the busy office building. The genki blonde bounced up to them. "You're already back? How'd it go? Are you going to tell us why you were summoned?"

Smiling, Hisoka stepped away from his husband, their son cradled in his arms. Seeing him, Wakaba's mismatched eyes went wide and she let out a squeal of delight. Curious, Terazuma stepped cautiously forward, watching that he didn't come into contact with Kurosaki.

Just as he paused to stare in shock at the wrapped infant, its eyes opened. The shinigami's yell could be heard all the way from the living world.

"You _spawned_?!"


	19. No Pink House

A/N: That wasn't too long of a wait, was it? This is going to be a quick note, because the battery on my laptop is about to die. Hope you like the new chapter, and leave me a tasty review. Enjoy!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Nineteen

No Pink House

After he was satisfied with the history lesson, Kurikara sent his shinigami descendant back home to return to his duties. The others planned to return to Meifu later that day, both pilots glad that, even with the knowledge of their roles that they had gained, very little had changed between them. In fact, the only thing that Duo noticed was that Wufei seemed to have figured out just how he'd managed some of his pranks. Though he wouldn't admit it, Wufei also found himself understanding why he often felt so protective over the bouncy man.

"I still think it's kinda odd that we just happened to end up fighting with each other, despite the fact that we came from different colonies and completely different social classes," Duo rambled, following Wufei as the Chinese man took a walk around the courtyard. Duo, having declared walking boring, floated on his back in the air. His reasoning was that he hadn't flown in so long that he'd gotten out of practice and was re-teaching himself. Kurikara said he was just being lazy. No one denied the fact. "And I know it wasn't divine intervention, because not even Enma knew quite where I was. If he did, he wouldn't have left me out on the battle front. Not when we're still not quite sure whether or not I'm actually immortal yet."

"Yet?" Wufei asked, raising an eyebrow.

Duo didn't seem to be listening. "Maybe it was one of the lesser kami, one of the more mischievous ones. Or Zorinami. Supposedly, I burped up on her kimono once when I was a baby. Women can hold grudges for a pretty long time, even against baby step-brothers."

Wufei didn't want to think about that one. The simple claim of Enma was enough. The resulting relations were bound to make his head hurt.

"Chibi, Wufei-kun, Tsuzuki-san sent me to tell you that it's time to go back to Meifu," Byakko announced, appearing from nowhere to pounce the floating shinigami. Having seen the tiger just in time, Duo dodged to the side, sending Byakko sprawling on the ground. He quickly recovered for a second attempt, this time just going for a strong hug. "You'd better take care of yourself, and visit again soon. No fifteen year long gaps this time."

"Alright, alright, I'll visit more often, I promise. Now let me breathe," Duo gasped, having had the wind knocked from his lungs. "Try to get Sohryu to loosen up a bit before my next visit, okay? Come on, Wuffers. Let's get out of here."

Seeing Duo's intent quite clearly as he drifted closer, Wufei tried to duck out of his comrade's reach. "I can walk on my own, Duo. There's no need to- Put me down!"

Despite his struggles, the two made it to Tenku palace quickly by simply flying over buildings and walls instead of walking around them. Upon arrival, Wufei was set down to use his own feet, but Duo insisted on clinging to his arm in preparation to traveling back through the gate. His father couldn't seem to keep the smirk away from his face even after being glared at a few dozen times. After being married to Hisoka for so long, glares rarely affected him.

They were just about to open the gate when Kurikara called out to Duo. "Kenko, just a moment. I have something that belongs to you. Somehow, I have a feeling that you'll be wanting it again soon."

Curious, Duo left Wufei's side to see what it was that his shiki had for him. When Kurikara produced an airy piece of cloth from his sleeves, he gasped. Wufei felt like doing the same, recognizing the tenshi's robe for what it was immediately. He'd never thought to see one outside of a painting. "How did you find it? I lost it during the explosion on L2."

"It's all we could find when we went searching for you," the shiki explained, stepping forward to tie it around his master's arms, where it drifted on the air as though it weighed no more than smoke. "I've been keeping hold of it ever since."

"Thank you," Duo choked, bending down to hug the dragon tightly. "I promise it won't be so long until I see you again this time."

"Summon me if you're in any trouble, Kenko," Kurikara ordered with a crooked smile.

Duo returned the look. "Will do, Kuri-chan."

Two young women immediately set upon Duo the moment they stepped foot back in Meifu, dramatically crying and glomping onto the braided man, who was still dressed in the clothes he'd worn when Kurikara had returned him after their talk. Coming out of hiding now that they'd diverted their attention away from him, Hisoka pulled Wufei aside to introduce him to other members of the ministry, informing him at a distance that the pair were named Yuma and Saya, and that he should be careful never to become under their mercy.

The happy reunion was interrupted as a white bird quite unlike anything Wufei had ever seen flew in through a window to land in Duo's outstretched palm. It changed shape, turning into a paper bird that the shinigami unfolded to read, the expression on his face turning from confusion to an excited grin. "I knew he'd be calling soon."

Tsuzuki didn't seem to be nearly as happy about the message as his son was, clearly recognizing the exact type of messenger bird. "When does he want you?"

"Tomorrow morning, and I'm to bring my guardian," Duo said, glancing up at Wufei to make sure he understood. Eyes widening as he realized who 'he' was, Wufei nodded. "We've still got the rest of today though. So who's up for doughnuts?"

Despite the dire warnings of Duo's 'mother,' Wufei found himself turned over to the hands of the two blonde women as they descended on him with kimono and other silks first thing the following morning. Apparently once they were forsworn against anything from Pink House, they were the leading authorities on formal dress when going to the halls of Enma.

So it was that the two pilots found themselves waiting for the kami in his chambers within the hour, one trembling with excitement and the other with nervousness. Then the door opened.


	20. Doctor's Tip

A/N: Cheers! There is a new chapter! I start college classes next week, but it should affect my update speed too much because they're all on Tuesday. So, I hope you enjoy the new chapter as much as I did writing it, and this one as a blast to write. Read and review!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Twenty

Doctor's Tip

The moment he realized just who had entered the room, Wufei fell to the ground with his forehead pressed to the floor in reverence. He paused a moment, waiting for Duo to follow suit. Duo had no such intent. The mortal's heart skipped a beat when his comrade leapt forward to embrace the kami. And, adding to his shock, Enma opened his arms to receive him. "My son. You have returned."

"I missed you, Otou-sama," the shinigami whispered into his shoulder, inhaling deeply. The calming scent, indescribable in human terms, finally matched his fondest dreams. He couldn't help but to bask in the aura of his claimed father, the feeling that dominated his first memory. Reluctantly, he pulled away to stand next to where Wufei was kneeling on the ground. "Otou-sama, this is my guardian, Chang Wufei, Mao's grandson."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Wufei," Enma said warmly. "You may stand before me."

Trying not to let his trembling show, Wufei did as told, taking in the kami's appearance.

If any one figure from mythology that he'd met that week actually fit what he'd been raised to imagine, King Enma was it. Long dark hair fell straight around him like black water, framing a face worthy of a porcelain doll.

Amber eyes regarded them both calmly. "You will be a suitable guardian for my child."

Wufei bowed deeply at the waist. "I thank you for saying so, Enma-dono."

"Alright, pleasantries are done now, so drop the formality," Duo said, bouncing between them and wrapping an arm around each. "If I have to listen to this for the next ten days or so I'll go mad."

Enma laughed softly. "You mean more-so than usual, my son?"

Immediately, the tension was drained from the room and Wufei allowed himself to breathe properly as they all moved over to a seating area where they were all poured tea. Duo shot a look to his claimed father when he saw his guardian being served.

"Do not worry, Hijiri," the kami said as he recognized the question in violet eyes. It'd been the same that he had worn once, when Hijiri was just a babe. "Your guardian is already bound to you. Our fare will not harm him."

"Really?" Duo asked curiously. He reached out and laid a hand on Wufei's chest, and the Chinese pilot felt a wash of... something go over him. "Cool."

Shaking his head, Wufei decided he didn't want to know and simply focused on drinking his tea. It was going to be a long couple of days.

-

In the living world, Quatre peered worriedly into his own cup of tea, which had long gone cold. Three weeks. Duo and Wufei had been missing for twenty-one days, and there was still no word. Relena had been unable to dig up any gossip, Noin hadn't heard anything over the communication lines, and even airing their descriptions on television had failed them. It truly was as though the two former pilots had vanished off of the face of the earth.

They'd taken to doing watches over Duo and Wufei's apartments in case a call came in or, miracle upon miracle, one of them actually showed up. Avoiding the press for a bit, Relena had joined Quatre in his shifts. An upset Quatre was bad enough, but the empath upset and alone was even worse. And with two of the top agents missing, the Preventers couldn't spare enough to send teams out to watch each location.

Eying the no-longer-steaming cup, Relena sighed. Reaching forward, she pried it from the other blonde's hands. "Quatre, if you keep letting it get cold, I'm going to stop making more."

Quatre blinked at her, as though just remembering that he wasn't alone. "What- Oh. I apologize, Miss Relena. It's just..."

"You're worried about them, I know," she said kindly, standing up with his cold cup and her empty one. "But dwelling on it isn't going to help them much. I'll go make another pot of tea. If you let this one get cold, I'll pour it out on your head."

He laughed softly at the threat, shaking his head. The former queen had certainly grown up since the war, even if she did still sneak into HQ to leave lunches on Heero's desk. His embarrassed looks after finding each one made helping her to bribe the front desk people worth it. That and the cooking lessons they begged Trowa to give them. Before then, Quatre could make Arabic coffee and toast and Relena could bake sweets, but that was pretty much it. It was cute, really.

"Could you put some milk in mine this time?" he asked as she left the room for the kitchen. "I'd like to be able to sleep sometime in the near future."

There was an answering giggle from the other room along with the sound of the faucet and the kettle being put onto a stove burner.

Relena was just returning to the room when Quatre's cell rang, causing both twenty year-olds freeze before there was a mad scramble for the phone, during which the tea somehow made it safely onto the coffee table. War reflexes won over political and Quatre answered with a formal "Preventer Winner here."

The voice that replied was smooth and cultured, but old and with the faintest Japanese accent. "Am I correct that you are the ones searching for a Mr. Tsuzuki?"

Quatre heart leapt into his throat. "Yes, that's correct. Do you have any information on him?"

"I believe that I might," the man said after a pause. "But I'm rather leery about giving it over the telephone. Would a meeting with you be possible?"

"Of course," Quatre said immediately. He of all people knew the risks over giving vital information over the phone, especially when it wasn't a secure line. "Can you come to the Preventeffrs' Headquarters?"

"I'm afraid that I find it hard to travel these days, and am on L2 at the moment," the man said, pausing in thought. "Are you familiar with the Maxwell Monument?"

Was he ever. Duo traveled there every year, and at least one of them usually went with the other man, mainly to make sure he didn't do anything stupid if he got too upset. "Yes, I know the place. I can be there tomorrow."

"That would be perfect," the man said. "How is five o'clock for you?"

"Sounds alright," Quatre said. Then he realized something. "I don't believe that I've caught your name yet, sir."

Quatre couldn't help but to shiver at the amusement in the caller's voice as he wrote down the name on a piece of scratch paper. "Muraki. Doctor Kazutaka Muraki."


	21. Return to Ningenkai

A/N: It's been far too long since I've updated this fic, but nothing compared to some of the others. College classes are seriously distracting to writing. Anyway, I don't own anything except for the story, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Read and review!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Twenty-one

Return to Ningenkai

Wufei found himself sitting in Enma's waiting chamber quite often during their stay while the kami shut himself in with Duo for long hours on end. From what he could pry out of his fellow pilot in their spare hours before bed, it had to do with some sort of lessons. What sort, he wouldn't say, but Wufei could feel something about his friend growing stronger.

It was while he as waiting for one such lesson to end that a messenger bird flew in, not bothering to pause as it flew through the door that slid open for it. There was a brief moment of silence before the same door snapped open again, Duo storming through it this time, latching onto Wufei's arm and pulling him to his feet the instant he was near enough.

"We have to return to the living world," the braided man said briskly. "Now."

Wufei was almost stumbling in his attempts to align his feet properly beneath himself so suddenly. "What happened?"

"You know how Kaa-chan looks a lot younger than most of the people in the ministry?" Duo asked, not stopping as he turned down another hallway, all the while still holding onto Wufei's arm. He didn't wait for the other pilot's response before going on. "Well, it's because he was murdered as a teenager. Long and personal story turned short and vague, evil creepy guy cursed him when he was thirteen. The curse took three years to kill him, a year after that he and Dad became partners. Ran into Kaa-chan's murderer on their first mission together, and he started stalking Dad and attacking Kaa-chan. It's been so long since there's been any activity from him, the ministry just figured that he'd died of natural causes or something because his name, as far as we know, never came up in our case files."

"I take it that he's not dead then, or you wouldn't be in such a panic," Wufei said, adding things up.

Duo practically _growled_. "Solo, L2 shinigami, just sent a report of a man, using his name and matching the general description, showed up on his colony. And he met up with Quatre and Relena."

The moment they stepped outside, their shinigami pulled his guardian into an embrace, holding him tightly as they made the transition into the living world. Wufei found himself shivering at what he convinced himself was the temperature change. Glancing about, he recognized their immediate surroundings as the alley they'd left from.

"I'm not used to making the switch yet," Duo explained even as he released Wufei and began to run toward the alley exit. "I aimed toward my blood so that I wouldn't accidentally drop us in a wall or something. Didn't think you'd like that very much."

Nodding, the other pilot couldn't help but to notice the stares they were receiving as they made their way through the Chinatown crowds. Thankfully, people moved away from them as they went, giving them a path. Murmurs followed them as they ran, and Wufei was positive he knew what they were about.

Recognizing the direction they were heading in, Wufei glanced over to Duo in confusion. "Why are we going to your apartment?"

The shinigami's answering grin possessed more than a little insanity. "We're going to get Kaa-chan's family sword. We're going to avenge his murder properly."

As they sped up the stairs to Duo's apartment, the Chinese pilot wasn't so sure that the braided man's sandals ever touched wood. They dashed from the stairwell door so swiftly that Duo almost ran into his pale-haired ex-roommate.

"Duo, Wufei, where have you _been_?" Millardo demanded, blocking the way to the apartment door. His eyes widened as he took in the familiar style of clothing. "What-"

"There's no time!" Duo insisted, pushing the man aside. "Contact the others. Quatre and your sister are in trouble. The man they met is a serial killer."

Jerking back, the prince didn't move for a moment before he nodded and left, pulling his phone out as he ran toward the way they'd come. Duo watched him for a moment before starting back into action.

He vanished into his room, emerging only moments later with two sheathed swords, one of which he tossed to Wufei. Remembering that particular one, the man protested. "Duo, this is your mother's ancestral sword. You should-"

"The one I wield was made for me by Kurikara," the shinigami stated firmly. "You're my guardian. There's no shame in letting you use Kaa-chan's."

"How are we supposed to get there in time to do anything useful?" Wufei asked, following Duo as the man walked purposefully out to the balcony.

He glanced around before answering. "If there's one thing a student of Enma Daioh can do, it's fly _fast_."

In a split second, two arms had wrapped themselves securely around Wufei's waist and were pulling them upward at unbelievable speeds. The mortal tucked his head against Duo's chest to shield it from the wind, which grew colder as they sped up and went higher.

Wufei could almost _feel_ them leave the atmosphere, but he still found no trouble breathing, and he found himself aware of the temperature, but as though from a distance. Instead, he felt an overwhelming presence of _Duo_, the growingly familiar power wrapping around him. If his comrade wasn't a kami yet, he was well on his way to becoming one.

The stars themselves seemed blurred as one grew from a pinpoint of light into the metal mass that was the colony where Duo grew up, and Wufei tried not to yell in shock as they passed _through_ the shell of the colony, heading directly toward what looked like a warehouse district.

-

Heero was talking with Une when her phone rang.

"Une here," she answered.

Millardo's voice was frantic through the speaker phone. "Une, I just saw Duo and Wufei. They're fine, but Quatre and Relena are in danger. Kazutaka Muraki is a serial killer according to Duo. I can't reach either of them on their cells."

"Understood," Une said sharply. "Head directly to the shuttle port. We'll meet you there and have a shuttle waiting. Une out." She hung up before starting to dial one of their in-house numbers, looking to Heero as she did so. "Arm up and go. Millardo will brief you on the way."


	22. Confrontation

A/N: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my cat Scamp, who passed away early yesterday morning. She's been with the family for almost exactly thirteen years along with her brother, Mathias. On a lighter note, I hope you enjoy the new chapter. I don't own either series. Read and review.

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Twenty-two

Confrontation

Quatre couldn't remember his head ever having hurt so much before, with only a possible exception of when he'd come out of the Zero system. Taking a calming breath, he began to take stock of his situation. He was blindfolded, and his hands were bound behind him, fingers wrapped tightly in cloth to prevent him from working at the cord. His ankles were similarly bound.

He and Relena had gone to L2, arriving at the memorial early. Right at five, an elderly gentleman walked up to them and introduced himself as Dr. Muraki. There had been something… _off_ about the way he'd looked at Quatre while they shook hands, but he'd brushed the feeling aside then. If only he'd listened to his space heart.

"So, you're awake, Winner-san," Muraki's smooth voice said out of the cloth-induced darkness. "I apologize for the use of the drug, but I needed you and Miss Peacecraft to cooperate."

"In what?" Quatre asked, heart pounding. "Where is Relena?"

"Right beside you, still unconscious," the man said offhandedly. "Poor child doesn't seem to have quite the same resistance as you do. As for why you are here, it's really quite simple. Bait."

When Quatre didn't give any reply, the doctor continued. "You see, Winner-san, I am a very patient man. For a long time, I have managed to stay alive and hidden, waiting for my beloved Asato to resurface. Several weeks ago, I was almost ready to give up hope. But then I heard something on the radio. The description of a man, with brown hair and violet eyes, a color I have only seen in someone once, because such a color is impossible for humans to have."

"You already knew the name Tsuzuki when you called," Quatre said in realization. "We aired the name Maxwell and you said Tsuzuki. But Duo isn't this Asato."

The laugh was short and mocking. "Of course not. I realized that after doing a bit of my own research and finding records of his at the end of the war, and before his involvement. Not Asato, but perhaps a distant nephew."

There was something _else_ coming toward them, its presence brushing against the edges of Quatre's space heart. He couldn't tell what it was, but it felt _safe_. Alongside it, almost completely shrouded, was the strictly contained fire that he knew was Wufei. He forced back a sigh of relief. Help was coming. He just needed to keep Muraki distracted.

Beside him, there was a shifting as Relena stirred awake. She was bound like Quatre, but left able to see. Despite her attempts to stay still, the doctor noticed her rousing immediately.

"Duo's his son, not his nephew," she said, having heard them in her half-awake state. "Duo's mother was named Kurosaki Hisoka."

"Do you think me to be a fool, Miss Peacecraft?" Muraki asked, scorn in his voice. "Kurosaki has been dead for over two hundred years. I should know. I killed _him_ myself."

"But we saw both of them on a video that was only fifteen years old, and they were alive until the building went up," Quatre protested, his mind scrambling for a reason why his space heart was telling him that Muraki _wasn't_ lying.

He flinched as a cold hand touched his face. "My dear boy, that is the power of a shinigami, the dead souls cursed to linger on the earth and help others to their final rest. As for my beloved, he was cursed from the beginning, the child of a demon, as would all his family be cursed. How else would you explain their impossible eyes?" The hand traced along the line of Quatre's jaw. "Unable to see _your _eyes, you look almost exactly like that boy, Hisoka. He had the misfortune of meeting me under the sakura one spring night under a blood red moon. I caught him, and I stripped him, and then I cursed him. He lived in agony for three years before my curse finally killed him. Imagine my surprise when I saw him again the fourth year, working beside my Asato."

Quatre began to shake at the amount of _evil _rolling off of the man. He tried to jerk away, but the caressing hand clamped down. "What do you hope to gain by holding us? Duo has been missing for several weeks."

"If he's anything like his ancestor, he'll show up again to protect those he considers family, no matter the danger," Muraki said, amused. "And to protect his kin, Asato won't be far behind."

"You're right about one thing, bastard."

"Duo, no, it's a trap!" Relena shouted.

Despite the warning, Duo stepped into view from the shadows, Wufei a step behind him. Both were dressed in silks and bore swords on their belts at the ready. Duo's eyes were locked onto Muraki.

Relena had never seen such hate, and Quatre had never felt such fury. It was truly terrifying. Terrifying and somehow beautiful, like watching lightening.

They missing pilot's unbound hair fluttered behind him as he stepped forward, hand on his sword's hilt. "You, Muraki Kazutaka, murdered my mother. You hunted my father. You destroy everything you touch, breaking the sacred oath as a healer. For the last two centuries, you've run from my lord father's justice, and now you dare touch those I hold dear to me." Face cold, he drew his sword. "I am Tsuzuki Hijiri, son of Tsuzuki Asato and Kurosaki Hisoka, chosen child of King Enma himself. I will pass his sentence upon you."

"So Winner-san told the truth. The dead have given birth to life," Muraki said slowly, eyes moving over the man who bore Hisoka's face and Tsuzuki's unique coloring. "Amazing."

As Duo and Muraki sized each other up, Wufei used the moment of distraction to slip around them to where Quatre and Relena were bound. Silently, he cut their bindings, removing Quatre blindfold as well. "Are you alright? Has he hurt you at all?"

"Just my pride," the blond said, rubbing his wrists. "Getting captured so easily. I've gotten soft since the war." He forced down a gasp as he took in Wufei's appearance. The Chinese man just laughed, glancing over his shoulder to where his lord (somehow, this situation called for the title) settled into a sword stance. Following his gaze, Quatre didn't manage to cover a second gasp. The ethereal robe floating about his arms was all too familiar, as was the style of robe. Added to the fact that their comrade's feet were not making contact with the floor, and Quatre suddenly had a feeling that the shooter, Daniel, hadn't gone as crazy as they'd supposed. "He's a kami…"


	23. Death and the Doctor

A/N: Welcome to the newest chapter of this fic. I'm sorry for the delay of this update. It's actually been written for a while now, but only got typed today because I've been dedicated most of my time this month to my newest novel, being written for NaNoWriMo, which you should all look up. By the way, I am still looking a for a beta. The details can be found in my profile. So, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Read and review!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Twenty-three

Death and the Doctor

As Duo's body slid into a long-forgotten stance, his world narrowed to the demon standing before him. Even as aged as Muraki was from the photos he'd seen, the shinigami knew that he'd be a fool to think the man weak. Seeing that he wasn't going to be underestimated, Muraki straightened up, lifting his cane from the floor and twisting the head. His opponent didn't blink when his sword was revealed.

There was silence as the two clashed.

Left to their own devices, Wufei and the former prisoners search for an exit.

"How did you get in here?" Quatre asked. "We should be able to get back out the same way."

Wufei snorted. "Can you walk through walls? We didn't use a door."

Beside them, Relena found herself mouthing 'walk through walls?' She was so stunned that she didn't notice right away when they, having spotted a door, began to walk away. Growling, she ran after them. "Wufei Chang, I want an explanation, and I want it now, so you'd better start talking."

"Please, tell us what happened to you," Quatre said as Wufei knelt down in front of the door.

"Do either of you have any hair pins?" he asked, holding a hand out behind him, effectively ignoring the questions.

Fishing one out of her hair, Relena handed it to him and watched as it was twisted into a workable lock-pick. "Wufei…"

The Chinese man waited until the lock clicked open. "Turns out that Duo's not really from L2. Wasn't born on any of the other colonies either. His real name's-"

"Hijiri Tsuzuki," Quatre interrupted. "Born in Tokyo. We've done our research."

"Hijiri-sama wasn't born in Tokyo, Quatre," Wufei said. He tossed a worried glance toward the sword battle before ushering the two out of the room. Once he got them to safety, he could return to aid his friend. "He was born in the underworld to a pair of men that have been dead since old calendar days. As for being a kami, he's pretty damned close. I'd give it four years."

"What happens in four years?" Relena asked.

Wufei checked the new door in front of them, finding it unlocked. "He stops aging and goes home." A prickling at the back of his neck made Wufei shiver. He threw open the door and all but shoved Quatre and Relena outside. "Run."

They got away from the building all too soon as flames erupted from every opening, including the door they'd just exited from.

"Duo!"

-

Duo cursed as his enemy's sword sliced into his arm, adding yet another bloody gash to his already impressive collection. What had he been thinking? The only time he'd so much as touched a sword in the last decade before he received his mother's had been swiping Wufei's and hiding it. Muraki had obviously been practicing a lot over the centuries.

"Kurikara!"

The air burned as the dragon smith appeared in the room in all of his scaled glory. Catching sight of his master's injuries, he gave a roar of anger, charging at the deranged doctor.

Muraki hastily summed a demon to intercept Kurikara's attack, and the two beasts grappled above them. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Muraki made a charge of his own.

As the blade struck through him, Duo let out a scream to shatter the heavens.

-

Wufei tried to fight Quatre and Relena's hold that kept him from dashing back into the burning warehouse. The three froze as a scream rang out, the sound tearing through their very souls, Wufei's especially. His lord needed him.

Finally, he broke free, unsheathing the Kurosaki sword as he ran. So focused, he never noticed that the fire was not burning him, and he barely spared a glance at his enraged ancestor. His eyes immediately went to the slumped body of his friend and lord, and to the cane sword sticking out from him.

Muraki stood over him, unwinding a long spool of dark thread in preparation to tie the body. (1)

All his years of training seemed to concentrate in his mind, manifesting in his hand as he ran forward with a great yell. Muraki gasped, blood flying from his mouth. Looking down, he stared in disbelief at the two feet of folded steel protruding from his chest. Bloodied, the engraved kanji was easy to read. "Kurosaki?"

"His mother's death avenged by his own sword," Wufei said, surprisingly calm as he jerked the sword out, swinging it higher in one glittering arch.

Muraki was dead before his head hit the floor, the rest of his body soon toppling over after it.

Wufei ran to where Kurikara was wrapped around Duo's body, Muraki's beast vanishing with his death. The forge fires also vanished. Running footsteps and horror filled gasped told him that Relena and Quatre had re-entered and saw Duo's body as well.

"Oh god, is he-" Relena cut herself off, unable to voice her fear.

The guardian didn't answer, rolling his lord to pull the sword out, throwing it as far away from him as he could. More blood gushed out to soak the silk of Duo's robes and Wufei's.

"Ancestor?" Wufei ventured to ask, looking up at the dragon. He was by far more frightening now than he was in his human form.

Kurikara snorted, nosing Duo's body. "The children of kami don't roll over and die so easily. Kenko will wake up when he's good and ready. Hour, maybe two. Tops."

Hiding his surprise that he dragon could speak (and the form of address that Wufei had used), Quatre found himself meeting the beast's eyes. "So he really is almost a kami?"

"Yes, little empath, he is," Kurikara said with a grin. "You look a lot like his mother, you know. He's an empath too. Hope _you _don't plan on challenging me."

Quatre quickly shook his head. No way was he challenging something that big, especially when it seemed to be an ally.

Seemingly satisfied that his master would be looked after, Kurikara returned home, leaving the three humans alone with one corpse and one future shinigami. Gritting his teeth, Quatre searched the doctor's clothes for a cell phone, thanking the heavens when he found one, intact and working.

His fingers were on automatic as he dialed. "Trowa? This is Quatre." There was a pause where Wufei and Relena could hear a million fast and worried questions. "No, I'm alright. Muraki's dead. Can you trace the signal? I'm not sure just where we are. Someplace in the warehouse district. Yes, Duo and Wufei are here. Tell Heero and Millardo that Relena is unharmed for the most part." Covering the receiver, he turned blue eyes to Wufei. "Heero wants to talk to Duo."

--

1. The hair of a murdered woman. Used to bind a shinigami.


	24. Clean Up

A/N: Welcome back to the fic, peoples. If you ever want a creepy place for a camp-out, forget the cemetery and the church. Small, community theatres make the strangest noises at night and usually have a least one ghost in residence. Believe me, I know. Anyway, I hope you like the new chapter, but I'm being lazy due to the fact that I just got up, so you can mentally fill in your favorite disclaimer. Read and review!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Twenty-four

Clean Up

There was a cough from the ground between them. "Yell at me for making him worry, more likely. Give me the phone. One of you is going to need to carry me outside." When Quatre paused for too long, Duo simply snatched the phone from the blonde's hand. "Hiya Heero. Sorry, but I'm not dead yet. Got a couple of years before I come to take my blackened soul."

Heero's voice was gruff, as though spoken from a tight throat. "Baka. How can you collect your own soul?"

"I'll tell you when you're older," Duo said flippantly, hiding a pained grimace as Wufei hoisted him onto his back to carry him. "By the way, when you get here and see a lot of blood, don't freak out. It isn't all mine." He quickly covered the speaker. "And now you can talk to Relena."

"He's going to go and strap you to a hospital bed now," Wufei said, following Quatre back outside the building.

"Ooh, kinky."

Wufei rolled his eyes while Relena giggled behind them. "Just where did the innocent version of you that I saw around your parents go?"

"Bah, I was never innocent," Duo said, giving his guardian's ponytail a tug.

"You met his parents?" Quatre asked

Wufei smirked. "Would you believe that they're shinigami?"

"Somehow, I'm not surprised."

They found a shady spot out in the open to wait for the others, Wufei allowing Duo to lean on him. In a quick moment of insight, he hid Duo's tenshi robe in the braided man's sleeves.

It was impossible to miss the moment their 'rescue party' caught sight of them, besieged as they were by the trio of mother hens. Seeing as Millardo had first rights to Relena and Trowa was already smothering Quatre, Heero rounded on Duo, only to find his way blocked by an armed Wufei.

"Calm down, and _then_ you may speak to him," the dragon's descendant said smoothly but firmly.

Eyeing the bloodied sword, Heero took a calming breath, before attempting to approach to approach the braided man again. "Duo, I'm glad you're alright. Where have you been all this time?"

"Went and saw my parents and the place where I grew up," Duo quipped cheerfully. "My godfather's a doctor, so he fixed us right up. You didn't kill our attackers, did you?"

"They're still in Preventer captivity," Quatre said from Trowa's arms. "Claim to have been attacked by a dragon named Kijin. One of them seems to be convinced that you were a kami, Duo."

"Really?" the shinigami asked. "Imagine that. Wonder where he could have gotten that idea. Kijin's a guy who worked for my dad. Protective as hell, the lot of them. Yeah, I used to play with his little sister when I was a kid."

"So he's not a dragon?" Trowa asked.

Duo grinned. "Ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes and a nose. And I'm finally taller than him. Still not as tall as their dad though."

"Can we go home now?" Relena asked, looking up at her brother.

"Someone will need to deal with Muraki's corpse," Millardo said, casting a glance toward the warehouse.

"I believe that that is something we can take care of, Agent Wind."

The mortals, minus Wufei, jumped before the agents in said group spun to face a familiar blond man and his 'sister.' They were about to pull out their weapons when Duo's expression of relief stopped them.

"Was wondering when you'd get here, buddy," he said, attempting to stand. Both Wufei and Solo rushed forward to steady him as he wobbled. "Back off, you worry warts. I can do this."

"You were stabbed less than an hour ago," Wufei pointed out logically. "I don't care if you heal fast. You don't heal _that_ fast."

Heero's eyes flew wide, and he turned an accusing stare to Duo. "You were stabbed? Robes off. I need to see how bad it is. Wufei, why didn't you tell us?"

"It's already been bandaged," the Chinese man lied easily. "Give me some credit. I know how to deal with wounds in the field."

"See, no need to worry; it's been taken care of," Duo said, waving off his comrade's concerns. "Solo and Samantha here will take care of my family's boogie-man, and we can catch a shuttle home. I bet Byakko-chibi been missing me. So, do I hobble out of here or do one of you fine gentlemen get to carry little ol' me?"

"If this becomes a regular occurrence, I'm cutting your sugar intake," Wufei said, automatically stepping forward to lift Duo onto his back. Millardo, however, stopped him. "What? He's my responsibility."

Looks of confusion were passed between the other three of the five pilots as Millardo pointedly glanced at the tops of Duo and Wufei's heads, which were at the same level. Millardo, being several years older than them in addition to earth born and raised, was physically stronger and quite a bit taller. Finally, Wufei conceded.

"Alright," he said with a sigh. "But drop him and die."

"Why are you suddenly so protective?" Heero asked as Wufei closely supervised the Sanqian prince lifting Duo. "You got like this occasionally during the war too."

"Would you believe that we did not first meet during the war?" Wufei asked, a smirk on his lips. "For a brief moment in, we shared a cradle and slept together in the same pair of arms. We didn't know until recently, but I believe that I remembered subconsciously."

Upon returning to HQ, Lady Une had choice words to say to Duo and Wufei, and some more for Quatre about not arranging for back-up when meeting with a suspicious person away from public sight. By the time Sally got hold of them, she was mystified over the disagreement between the tiny wound on Duo's stomach and the vast amount of blood on his inner-most layers of clothing, where Muraki's would not have reached. Muttering about freaky colonist pilots, she slapped a band-aid on it and ordered him out of her hospital ward.

When Duo insisted on going to see their attackers, Wufei insisted on going with him. Between the two of them, Une found herself giving in. It was their right, after all.


	25. Shinigami

A/N: As some of you were guessing with the last chapter, this is the final chapter of "Living Shinigami." You've been wonderful readers throughout the story, even when there were problems or I threw tantrums. Thank you. So, for the final time, I hope you enjoy the chapter, which is extra long to celebrate the occasion. Read and review!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Twenty-five

Shinigami

With Quatre monitoring them from behind the one-way mirror, Duo and Wufei entered the interrogation room where the man named Jamison was trying to get Daniel out of the corner. He heard them approaching and promptly started to yell. "Haven't you had enough, you bastards? We've told you everything we know, and look what you've done to Daniel!"

"He shouldn't have attacked the chosen son of Enma," Wufei said coldly.

The cowering man stared at them in horror and awe as his gaze passed from Wufei to Duo, who stared calmly back. Seeing his friend's face, Jamison turned around and saw them. More specifically, he saw that Duo was walking without so much as a limp. "Holy shit."

"Kami-sama, I beg your forgiveness," Daniel said, shifting into a low bow. "We were in mourning and did not realize."

"Where did your sister die, Daniel?" Duo asked.

"Kyushu, my lord," the man said, not lifting his eyes from where they were fixated on the shadows below the shinigami's feet. He did look up, however, when Duo stepped closer, ignoring the sputtering Jamison.

"Then she was delivered to the afterlife with gentle hands," Duo said. "My mother and father watch over that city."

"So that's it?" Jamison asked. "No 'you'll be together someday' or 'she's in a better place'?"

"I'm a pre-shinigami, not a grief counselor," Duo said, returning to his usual joking self. "And I'm not going to say because I don't know. The records are sealed and I'm not my Otou-sama. I refuse to tell even sweet lies."

"Nor is all forgiven," Wufei said, stepping up par with his friend. "You'll be tried and sentenced just like anyone else who attacks a Preventer agent with intent to kill. And I wouldn't suggest trying to 'out' my lord as inhuman, because it'd only result in people thinking you mad. Duo, are we finished?"

Nodding, Duo led the way from the room, Quatre joining them silently from the monitoring room as they passed the door. "That was quite the show you put on for them. Oh, and you're still floating."

Quickly checking that no one else had noticed, Duo grinned. "Seems like Danny there needed it and Jamie needed knocked down a beg. Now, if Wufei here had been the one shot, I wouldn't have been so nice."

"And you say _I'm_ overprotective."

"_You'd_ still be hobbling around with a cast on your leg."

"So Duo, if your parents work in Kyushu, what were they doing on L2?"

-

Three years, eleven months, and thirty days later:

Duo's friends found it horribly fitting and ironic that his funeral would be on the same day he and Wufei had mysteriously returned after their still yet unexplained three week absence. Then again, Wufei might have done that on purpose, being the one to plan the event.

For reasons that not even their own Doctor Sally Po could explain, Duo's heart had stopped at midnight on his twenty-fifth birthday as he and Wufei, his four-year housemate, shared a bottle of hot sake. Tests hadn't revealed anything wrong with the drink, so foul play was quickly ruled out. The way Duo looked when the other pilots got there on Wufei's call, he might have been just holding his breath with his eyes shut and would jump up at them any moment. But it had never happened.

Three days after his death, the remaining pilots had been approached by a lawyer representing the Kurosaki family. The estate, he'd told them, had been left vacant for generations, the line having thought to have died out. The local village, however, had demanded the land preserved for an heir they swore would be born. A comparative test matched Duo's DNA with that of one of the long-dead Kurosaki, naming him said heir. Unfortunately for Duo, the results came too late to be of much good to him. But despite the fact that he shouldn't even have known of its existence, the land was already listed in their comrade's will.

Duo'd left it to Wufei on the condition that his ashes be buried there. He'd already had a place picked out, beside a small, almost hidden grave marker with the name Kurosaki Hisoka etched into it hundreds of years before. Only Quatre, Wufei and Relena knew that the marker stood for the same Hisoka that Duo called his mother, and not just a like-named ancestor as the others supposed.

The main service at the funeral was open to the public, but even so, the number of strangers that came surprised even Lady Une.

"Just think, how many people he's touched," Sally murmured to her as people drifted in past Wufei, who stood at the door. Many of them greeted him with familiarity, including a Chinese teenage girl who stood on her toes to kiss him on the cheek and what looked like her grandfather, who bowed to him. The two sat with the blond 'siblings' that had been in attendance at all of Duo's birthday bashes.

And they were some of the more normal ones. A blue-haired family of three lead in seven others, only one having hair above his waist, the black clipped at the base of his neck. One of the women wore a dark veil that completely shrouded her face. Keeping a noticeable distance from them, a boyish man with incredibly long hair entered, and they definitely recognized him from the photos scattered around his and Wufei's shared house. Some of the others were rather familiar as well.

"Excuse me, but you're Commander Une, yes?"

The two women turned around to see the blond man they'd found so much in Duo's pictures, a small owl perched on his black suit-clad shoulder.

"Dr. Watari, correct?" Une asked, shaking the man's hand. He nodded. "Maxwell's godfather?"

"And family doctor," Watari said. "I helped in his creation."

"You make him sound like a science experiment," Sally said with a smile. Not only would Duo not mind some cheer at his funeral, he would have demanded it.

"A test-tube birth made from two men? He was somewhat," the man said. "You must be Dr. Po."

"Sally," the lady doctor corrected firmly. "If patching up the same trouble maker for a collective twenty-five years doesn't put us on a first name basis, I don't know what else would."

"Yutaka then," Watari said, lifting his eyes as the hall doors opened. "They made it."

Even as they turned to see who he was referring to, the hall fell silent. Spotting the couple, Une would see why. Even those who hadn't been part of the investigation could easily see that the two were family to their shinigami, especially the taller.

_Violet_ regarded the mourners with a calm gaze from under messy chestnut bangs, and he nodded to a few, Wufei included. The slight youth beside him bore a face straight out of Une's memories of the early days of the Preventers when the five were still teenagers and she was wary of allowing them to join. The ghosts of Asato Tsuzuki and Hisoka Kurosaki had come to their son's funeral.

People stood in respect as the two passed them, heading for the open coffin. Which Une and Sally were standing three feet away from. Wufei followed them up the aisle, leaving his post.

"How is he holding up?" the Preventer agent asked in a low voice as they approached.

"He's pouting," Tsuzuki said. His face was unreadable as he peered into the coffin. "He wanted to come."

Wufei snorted. "He would."

Kurosaki reached in to brush a stray strand of hair from his son's face. "We're already breaking some rules as it is with our presence. The king called for him this morning. We left at the same time as he did. Have you and he spoken?"

"I promised him at least five years," Wufei said, glancing skyward. "After that, it's up to me."

"Well, don't start counting down the days," Tsuzuki said. "You should enjoy life while you can."

Fitting words to hear at a funeral. Sadly, their conversation moved in another direction as Wufei showed them to some empty seats near the front, leaving Une and Sally confused about what they'd meant by five years. By the time they thought to ask Watari, as he seemed to know more than they did, he'd also vanished into the quickly filling seating area.

"I guess we'll have to wait," Sally said, shrugging.

"I hate waiting."

In the weeks to come, ghost stories ran rampant around the Preventor HQ regarding the pair and many of their acquaintances that had been in attendance, especially after the few photographs that had been allowed stubbornly refused to print or vanished from their computers all together. Especially those containing the late Duo Maxwell's parents.

-

The following named five years sped past all too quickly, most of the remaining pilots turning thirty, an age they'd have never thought to reach if asked during the war. Time had passed, clearly leaving its mark. Relena and Heero had married, with Quatre and Sally as best man and maid of honor. Said blond man had gotten his first great niece. Trowa and Quatre had also wed, choosing a civil wedding over a traditional. Of the original five, only Wufei remained mostly untouched in his life.

He still lived in the house he'd shared with Duo, though the fact that he'd kept the second pilot's room as it had been worried his friends. The Kurosaki sword, one of the few possessions that hadn't mysteriously vanished after Duo's death, was displayed proudly on a rack by the bed. But it wasn't until Heero came to Wufei's house to check on him after a mission and found him airing out the robe's he'd returned with Duo in that they realized that something was going to happen, whether they liked it or not. Together, his friends and comrades confronted him about it shortly after the New Year.

"Wufei, what's going on?" Sally asked the cornered man, doctor's eyes scanning him over. He certainly looked healthy. That was one plus, at least.

"Nothing," he said with a laugh, meeting each pair of concerned eyes in turn. "I'm just getting ready for Hijiri's birthday."

_Hijiri_. He's used that name to refer to Duo off and on while they'd been living together, and then dropped the assumed name completely after his death. But Duo's birthday was also the day of his death.

"Chang, it's been five years," Une said, with a sigh. Something in her stomach froze at the sound of her own words. _Five years_. He'd promised five years to someone, and she didn't like the idea she was getting with the upcoming date.

"Please promise us that you aren't going to do anything rash," Quatre, ever the caring man, pleaded. Knowing what he did, he also had an idea, and didn't like it anymore than Une did hers.

But Wufei only smiled and slipped through the exit door that he'd been sneakily picking behind his back.

A week later, during a late-night meeting, Quatre nearly choked on his tea as, as far as he could tell, the entire city was flooded with a very familiar presence. One he'd felt nine years prior, just before his rescue from the mad doctor. "D- Duo!"

"Quatre, are you alright?" Trowa asked, looking up from the report he was examining. Everyone else in the meeting room also had turned their eyes to the blond at the sound of the gasped name.

Quatre's knuckles were white as he clenched his hands around his cup, barely managing to set it onto the table without spilling. "We've got to stop him. Wufei's going to die."

Heero's eyes flew to the wall calendar. January fourteenth, and the clock was showing eleven forty. The three pilots and their commander were up and running full out to the parking lot within the moment.

"Can we make it in twenty minutes?" Wing's former pilot asked as they loaded into Une's car, being parked the closest to the front doors.

"This late at night, there might be a chance," she said. Long black streaks were left on the pavement as they pealed out of the parking lot.

For Quatre the feeling only intensified as they came in sight of the house. Eleven fifty-eight. He didn't pay attention to any of his surrounding as he ran into the house, thanking every god he could think of, whether or not he believed in them, that the door was unlocked. Eleven fifty-nine.

The sound of Duo's old grandfather clock striking the hour had never been so horrible as at the moment that he yanked open the door to Duo'd bedroom, just in time to see a flash of etched steel. As his horrified comrades caught up to him, Quatre knew that his eyes alone saw the pale hand that caught Wufei's as the Chinese man fell, the physical slipping through his grasp while one that seemed… paler separated from it.

As though sensing the stare, violet eyes lifted to his, soft and gentle in defiance of the blood pooling on the floor. Coal black eventually followed, tearing away from the floor where Wufei had been looking at his own body in morbid fascination. Somehow unnoticed by the others, Duo removed his mother's sword from Wufei's hand and put it away in the sheath on his belt. He still looked twenty-five, as he had when he'd died.

"My will's over by the sword wrack in my room," Wufei said, very matter-of-factly, as though he wasn't a ghost who had just committed suicide, his corpse so fresh as to be still warm. "I've made arrangements for it to be read two days after my confirmed death."

Quatre's nod was tiny enough to be all but invisible, meaning that only the two ghosts could notice it, since they were looking right at him.

"Time to go," Duo said, glancing up at his clock, still just on the last of its strikes. "Keep an eye out, Cat. You might be seeing us a few times before your time. We'll certainly be keeping an eye on you guys. Oh, and don't touch anything with little scythes scribbled on it. They're surprises for the guys and the new recruits."

When asked, he refused to explain why he'd started to both laugh and cry then as he threw himself toward the open window, staring at the sky.

-

In great contrast to Duo's, Wufei's funeral was small and private, held on the Kurosaki grounds with only two dozen or so people, each of which had been listed in his will. While his marker was going to stand there over a fistful of ash, the rest were to be scattered in the soil of the newly rebuilt L5 in a field where they were going to plant some flowers.

"Is everyone here?" Heero asked, glancing at the small ground milling about. There was to be a meal before the service, even if few were really in the mood to eat. It too had been in the will.

"All except for the three that weren't named," Quatre said. "Do you think they're going to show? We weren't able to contact them since we don't know who they are."

"We'll just have to start eating without them," the other man said.

They were halfway through the meal when Relena stood up and wandered away from the outdoor table, having seen something moving down along the dirt road leaning up to the manor. When she returned, she wrapped her arms around Heero from behind for comfort. "There's a carriage coming up the road."

"Someone from the village?" Heero asked, tilting his head to see her face better.

"Not unless someone from here also came to Duo's funeral," she said, shaking her head. "The driver was there. The short man with long hair."

"Kurikara?" Quatre asked, remembering the name Millardo had told them. Relena nodded and his stomach fluttered. It had also been the name of the dragon that had defended Duo, so many years ago. If _he_ was driving the carriage…

His thoughts were ground to a halt as it stopped not far from the table, the door facing them. An achingly familiar voice drifted out from within as the latch began to turn. "Sorry we're late. The girls were messing with my hair for hours."

More than one cup or fork was dropped as the door opened and a young kami stepped out onto the grass, his robe tied neatly around his elbows and his hair left loose over his back. Duo Maxwell, Hijiri Tsuzuki, bowed to them in greeting before his face split into a wide grin. "So, didja miss me?"

As Relena, being the only one standing and therefore having the easiest access, launched herself at him with a sob that was both happy and royally pissed off, there was an amused cough from behind Duo. When Wufei stepped out into the dappled sunlight, it was to quickly lunge forward to steady Sally as she threatened to topple over.

"Been back in the world of the living for an hour and you're both already charming the ladies," Kurikara snorted, swinging down from his seat.

"Is anything you pilots do even close to normal?" Une asked weakly as the three settled themselves into their seats.

Duo snorted, reaching for the potatoes. "Normal is overrated. Just be glad ol' Trieze was busy this weekend."

Wufei looked at him, startled. "He's a shinigami?"

"Over in Europe, yeah," the long-dead (as opposed to the living or newly-dead) man said. Then his brows furrowed and he looked to Kurikara. "Hey, how come Wufei got to come to his funeral? You guys didn't let me go to mine."

"Tough love, Kenko."

"Mean!"


End file.
